For Greek prime minister Costas Simitis, these are both the worst and best of times for his Pasok party government.
The measures that senior economic policymakers have been forced to take to qualify Greece for Emu membership by 2001 are becoming increasingly irksome to the electorate. Voters made this clear in October when Pasok was defeated at municipal elections, and nothing has happened since to temper this disenchantment.
On the other hand, against odds that were seemingly impossible two or three years ago, Greece's economy now appears to be firmly on track for meeting the Maastricht criteria. At least this is what forecasters, both inside and outside Greece, are now projecting, and what international bond and equity investors appear increasingly prepared to bet on.
Limits to bullishness
Predictably, perhaps, few external commentators are yet prepared to be quite as bullish as the Greek government. In its revised EU Convergence Plan drawn up in June 1998 the government forecasts that GDP growth will rise from 3.5% in 1998 to 3.7% in 1999 and to 3.9% in 2000. The plan predicts that inflation will fall in the same period from 4.5%