The economic ups and downs of Southeastern Europe

Economies across Southeastern Europe look way out of their comfort zones. The countries in the region have to withstand the consequences of severing the bonds with Russia and the repercussions of the war happening at their borders, all while going through the green transition and trying to satisfy the needs of workers, from farmers to doctors. Some countries manage well, but others struggle.

Bulgaria’s solar prowess and exporting power

Bulgaria’s economy is showing positive signs. First, green energy, particularly that generated by photovoltaics, hit an all-time high. Evgeny Ahmadzai of the Bulgarian newspaper Capital explores data from the state-owned Electricity System Operator that proves the country’s renewable energy sources covered 80% of the energy consumption at midday on April 10. A week before this news broke out, Ahmadzai announced a premiere in the Bulgarian energy industry: the share of energy from renewable sources equaled that of coal production (22%).

Besides being a “serious exporter” of electricity to the neighbouring countries, Bulgaria has seen a huge increase in its overall exports. Vera Denizova reports for Capital that Bulgaria’s exports have doubled in the last 10 years (2013-2023) and increased almost 7 times in the past 20 years. For context, 40% of the Bulgarian exported goods are raw materials.

Ain’t no sunshine when the farmer’s gone

While Bulgaria enjoys the energy produced by its solar panels, Greece goes overboard with the introduction of photovoltaics. Georgia Anagnou, reporting for Greek investigative platform Solomon, explains how Greece is failing to comply with the law that requires the Hellenic state to inform about the portion of the high-productivity lands occupied by photovoltaic plants. Greek farmers fear that the limit has already been reached and that they will have to “apologise to their children.”

Meanwhile, Moldova’s agricultural production decreased. On the bright side, the Moldovan investigative newspaper Ziarul de Gardă highlights that the country’s grapes became the bestselling fruit abroad, after experiencing extraordinary growth in recent years.

The dream of eating out

Despite the doubling of its exports, Bulgaria still has the lowest purchasing power in the EU, lower than Greece’s. Aphrodite Giantzis from the Greek daily newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton reports on Eurostat data revealing that Greece is 33% behind the European Union average. If the downward trend continues, Greece may soon trade places with Bulgaria. “In fact, while Bulgaria is constantly reducing the distance that separates it from the rest of the EU, having reached 64% of the European average, from 46% a decade ago, Greece, on the contrary, is slipping,” Giantzis notes. After all, recent data extracted by Giantzis from the Institute of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) proves that real wages in Greece fell by almost 9.4% cumulatively in two years (2022-2023), more than double the European average.

The consolation for Greece is that it is not the only country in Southeastern Europe struggling with falling purchasing power. For example, as the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet reported, many Turkish citizens decided to boycott cafes and restaurants on April 20-21. “Due to high inflation and financial difficulties, eating out has become a dream,” the Turkish newspaper wrote.

In the region, one of the countries whose economy prospered in the last few years is Cyprus. Business and finance journalist Kyriacos Nicolaou of the daily Cyprus Mail explained why Capital Intelligence Ratings decided to change the outlook on its long-term foreign currency rating (LT FCR) from stable to positive. “The government continues to manage its debt maturity profile to reduce refinancing risks while maintaining an increasing cash buffer to address short-term shocks and external vulnerabilities,” the agency said as quoted by the Cyprus Mail.

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