Greece rid of budget watch but inflation, energy woes bite

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s close financial oversight by European Union creditors is ending. Saturday’s milestone closes an unwelcome chapter dating to the country’s painful bailout years. It gives Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ center-right government greater freedom 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. Unlike the end of Greece’s budget checks, rising prices and high unemployment are key issues that have a tangible effect on ordinary Greeks. And the country will still be monitored by its creditors while it pays back its debts. That will take another two generations, with the last loans due for repayment in 2070.