Greece rid of budget watch but inflation, energy woes bite

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — With more of a whisper than a resounding clang, Greece has shed another restriction dating to its painful financial bailout years.

Saturday's formal end of “enhanced surveillance” by European Union creditors means the country will no longer face quarterly scrutiny of its public finances to win debt relief payments.

That gives Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' center-right government greater freedom over the budget at a time when Greece, like all of Europe, is struggling with a post-pandemic cost-of-living and energy crisis triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine. As Moscow has cut back natural gas to Europe, energy prices have surged, fueling galloping inflation and threatening to plunge Europe into recession.

Nevertheless, Greece — like fellow bailed-out EU members Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Ireland — will still be monitored by its creditors while paying back its debts. In Greece's case, that will take another two generations, with the last loans due for repayment in 2070.

Wolfango Piccoli, a co-president and director of research at Teneo consultancy who has covered Greece’s financial crisis for years, said the end of enhanced surveillance is not likely to have meaningful impact.

“It is mainly a technical matter that most investors are expected to ignore,” he said.

While Mitsotakis' government may try to score domestic political points with the exit from enhanced surveillance, "this will be a futile exercise," Piccoli said.

“The vast majority of the public is focused on the cost-of-living crisis,” he said.

That is true for Efthymia Paidi, a 23-year-old central Athens florist who grew up during Greece's financial crisis and doesn't feel much has changed since.

“I think the crisis is essentially continuing, it never ended,” she said. “What I see...