Free exchange | Greece, Ireland and Portugal

Three little piggies

A look at how Greece's economy is doing compared to Ireland's and Portugal's

By C.R. | LONDON

ON FEBRUARY 16th the Eurogroup, consisting of the euro-area's 19 finance ministers, met to discuss whether they should change the conditions of Greece's bail-out. Unsurprisingly, given that neither the German nor Greek governments were showing any sign of compromise over the weekend, the talks collapsed by the end of the afternoon. Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, is strongly opposed to any modifications. So, ironically, are the governments of Ireland and Portugal. Like Greece, the latter two binged on cheap debt before the crisis, suffered banking meltdowns and were forced to endure the austerity that came as a condition of bail-outs of their own. But instead of standing in solidarity with Greece, they are mimicking the stance of its creditors.

It is easy for Ireland and Portugal to be fastidious: their economies have recently started to hum again (see chart). Over the past two years, economic growth has got going, unemployment has being falling and bond yields on their public debt are now lower than before the financial crisis. Indeed, at today's meeting, Portugal's finance minister attempted to repay some of its bail-out loans ahead of schedule.

Greece's agony explained in charts

Although Greece's problems, in terms both of debt and of growth-smothering regulation, were much worse than Ireland or Portugal's, its reforms had been beginning to bear fruit too. Towards the end of last year, GDP started to rise again and unemployment started to fall, bringing a little relief to many impoverished Greeks. But since last month's election was called, in December, macroeconomic indicators have started to head the other way. Government revenues have begun to fall, the trade deficit has begun to rise and unemployment resumed its upward journey. The Greek tragedy about Syriza may well turn out to be that it knocked over the economic apple-cart when it was just about to reap the reward of its people's sacrifices over the last few years.

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