Are we in an informal “lockdown” and do not know it? The question has been asked more and more often in recent months by the sluggish market movement that is being recorded and observed by almost everyone. But what is the reason for this situation, which if it continues for a long time will create a problem in the economy, despite the ambitious efforts of all stakeholders and the government?
If we exclude, according to & # 8217; The unexplained, with objective criteria, hatred of the Cypriots to “circulate” when the weather is not “good” (for the measures of Cyprus) as has been the case for a few weeks and which is reinforced by the “colored” warning indicators of “intense” weather events that are advertised daily, as well as the permanently sluggish for the market months of January and February that follow the rise of the immediately preceding festive months, what else is left to explain the situation?
And as you rightly guessed, there remain the measures that are applied to deal with the pandemic and that concern not only the partial and alternate physical presence of employees in their offices, which means a lot for the way they consume services and products. It also concerns the reduction of cases and close contacts for ten days and seven days respectively, which with simple- “grocer” mathematics means the approximately “inactivation” of six to nine thousand people every day (number of daily cases multiplied by the number of close contacts), fact which means that the same amount of people are constantly “rolling”, who are essentially out of most of the market activities.
Even the “evergreen” supermarkets, have recorded a decrease in their work, with some other sectors be in a really desperate position, as either their work is interrupted due to a “case” or they are under-operated due to reduced staffing and use by absent consumers.
To this consequence of the implementation of these measures, is added the inflationary pressure due to a number of endogenous and external factors, but also the admittedly “exhausting” for incomes increase in the cost of electricity, due to accumulated political mistakes and omissions and distortions that now literally take away from the rest of consumption a huge amount of many millions of euros every month to pay fines that could have been avoided.
And to understand that, what is happening around electricity is equivalent to a degree of stupidity with, for example, a driver who constantly passes red in front of a permanently policed traffic light and always receives a fine… and continues to do so, until nothing happens. This happens in the pockets of all of us every month due to our behavior around the energy.
All this is now “felt” very clearly by the average Cypriot and the degree of reliability of these observations remains to be proven. statistics that will emerge shortly. But beyond any models, the fact remains: economic activity is affected and will continue to be negatively affected by the above reasons and it would be good to see suggestions, proposals and practical solutions as soon as possible.
Because very soon, together with the people, they will stop prospering… and the numbers, and after the winter comes, most likely,… another winter for the budget.
