Article EQBE Now a deal has been done, what lies ahead for the Greek economy?

Now a deal has been done, what lies ahead for the Greek economy?

by
Helena Smith in Athens
from on (#EQBE)

Greece's banks will reopen on Monday and the country will step back from the brink - but can the nation get back to normal or will it be permanently scarred?

In the week when Greece's economic drama peaked, six men conducted a ritual at the site that speaks of everything Europe cherishes most. At sunrise, and then again at sunset, they marched in perfect synchronisation to the top of the Acropolis. There, with rare solemnity, they sang the national hymn, saluted the Greek flag and then marched back down again.

The predictability of such a ritual - at the single greatest monument to democracy - contrasted vividly with what was going on below: a make-or-break vote in parliament, an economy in meltdown, closed banks, capital controls, popular uncertainty and protesters hurling petrol bombs at police. "What we now desperately need is to diminish the uncertainty," says Professor Yannis Caloghirou, who teaches economics at the National Technical University of Athens. "The banking system needs to be stabilised, we need to get back on the road of normalcy."

The age of innocence, the optimism that dominated society after the fall of the junta, is over

Related: Eurozone ready to start formal talks with Greece over a86bn bailout

Related: Greece debt crisis: reforms will fail, says ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis

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