Greek crash privatisation promises provoke doubts

From market analysts to the Greek junior finance minister, critics voice strong doubts that a huge fire sale of Greek state assets will raise enough money to help the debt-stricken nation.

The debt-choked Socialist government has promised to privatise and lease the equivalent of €50 billion worth of state companies and property by 2015.

The programme has shocked Greeks weary from a year of austerity budget corrections.

But sales were required by Greece’s international creditors in return for more aid, but they have been thrown in doubt by pressing deadlines and the government’s poor track record after months of promises.

“Not a single entity has been privatised in 18 months, so I’m quite reserved about the programme,” notes Angelos Tsakanikas, head of studies at the Institute for Economic and Industrial Research.

“There is definitely investor interest, but the question is how fast these procedures can move, the timetable is extremely tight,” he said.

Greece has pledged to raise €30 billion by 2014 from asset sales, including €5 billion by the end of the year.

But five months after the initiative was first unveiled, the main achievement so far has been the sale of 10 per cent of Greece’s main telecoms provider OTE to Germany’s Deutsche Telekom.

“That sale netted around €350 million which is extremely low,” Mr Tsakanikas said.

“This has nothing to do with the Greek economy, it’s looting public property,” adds Costas Lapavitsas, a left-wing economics professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, who argues that Greece should refuse to pay its debts. (AFP)

“Privatisation is just there to get some money to pay off the debt and probably some individuals in this country or elsewhere will be able to make huge profits,” he said.

Valuable properties include Europe’s biggest listed gaming firm Opap, the sprawling Hellenikon coastal complex and a stake in Athens International Airport.

But among the earmarked assets are sensitive entities such as the Public Power Corporation and the Thessaloniki water company. The planned partial sale of these has sparked outrage in parliament and mobilisation from unions.

PPC unionists last month struck with rolling power cuts which left households around the country in the dark for hours.