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Greece’s fading hope

Greece has been in a financial free fall amid severe austerity measures that has driven up unemployment.

More than seven years into the financial crisis, the affects of sudden poverty can be seen on nearly every street corner.
By Milos Bicanski
Published On 22 Jan 2015

Athens, Greece – Debate over Greece’s economic doldrums play out daily on the streets of this small nation.

The country is in a financial free fall, experiencing an unprecedented economic meltdown, as well as the disintegration of its infrastructure, and unravelling of its social fabric.

Industrial production and manufacturing have collapsed, while nationwide, hundreds of small businesses are closing by the day.

The labour force is experiencing a serious brain drain as young educated professionals leave the country in search of better opportunities abroad, further decimating the country’s prospects of recovery.

For every new rescue loan from other eurozone countries and IMF, Greece must inflict more pain on its citizens with endless pay cuts, tax increases, and drastic slashes in services that leave the needy desperate.
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The unemployment rate in Greece is more than 25 percent, and among youth it is higher than 50 percent.
Greece is a country in free fall, experiencing an unprecedented economic meltdown where industrial production and manufacturing have collapsed.
Greek factories received a double blow in the past decade, with a financial crisis that erased a quarter of the country's output, and the migration of production to new EU members Bulgaria and Romania, where wages remain lower.
An elderly woman passes by two homeless men sleeping behind Evangelismos hospital.
Greeks have been told the sacrifices they endured with pay cuts, tax increases and drastic cuts in services will save the country from an even worse fate.
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Most are now losing faith in the prospect of recovery.
The empty and broken advertisement boards show the ruins of the vast growth and quick fall of the Greek economy.
Greece's election has seen the rise of Syriza, a far-left party opposed to the international bailout.
Global markets have been shaken by fears that Greece could abandon the euro if the left-wing Syriza party wins the election on January 25.