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Welcome to San Stefanos (NW Corfu) => San Stefanos news and views => Topic started by: loftyscot on February 14, 2012, 02:27:09 AM

Title: Exchange Rate
Post by: loftyscot on February 14, 2012, 02:27:09 AM
Better rate now €1.19 compared to last year. Anyone stocking up on these just now or do we think it will get better?

Any plans for Drachma would never be in place for this year, unless they are secretly printing billions of them just now.
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: Rob.tc on February 14, 2012, 10:15:14 AM
Hi loftyscot, To change or not to change that is the question.
Ive also been wondering if now is the time to start stocking up with euro. The exchange rate has now been at this level for about 6 weeks now, but there is the default cloud looming on the horizon.
I'm tempted to wait until the Greek bailout has actually been approved until I change any significant quantities of hard earned cash into euros.
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: Gavlah1973 on February 14, 2012, 12:15:28 PM
Be interested to see if the prices of things like meals and wine will have increased this forthcoming summer?!
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: swedebasher on February 14, 2012, 12:31:08 PM
Same here, and I read that arrangements are in place including Greece for the drachma. I think I shall have to sit on my hands on this until a week before I go out in May.
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: Jimbo on February 14, 2012, 03:47:04 PM
It's so unstable at the moment that it's very hard to make a judgement.

What disgusts me is that the bail-out money will not go to the Greek people. It will go to usurers, who cook no souvlaki, dig no wells, create nothing, and are not suffering one tiny bit, indeed profiting from it.

Greece seems to suffer from a political class so habituated to lying and self-seeking that it makes ours in the UK look honest.

The good old Socialist song "It's the rich what gets the gravy, it's the poor what gets the blame" seems very apposite!

In the great Greek plays of ancient times by Aeschylus, Euripides, and so on, there's always a price to pay for insulting the gods and behaving in a greedy and immoral manner. What we're seeing now is a modern Greek Tragedy. Greece lied about its balance of payments to join the Euro. France and Germany broke the borrowing rate rules from the outset, encouraging Greece to borrow ridiculous amounts of money without any care for the outcome. Well, in the great Tragedies the Furies will always come to pursue the guilty. They knew this stuff three thousand years ago.

We can only be concerned bystanders as this unfolds. Of course, Greeks should pay their tax. Of course they should retire later. Of course none of us should rely upon a free lunch of German sausage.

My gut feeling is that Greece will get this tranche of money, but it may be the last.
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: swedebasher on March 15, 2012, 06:41:30 PM
Well have taken the plunge as the euro seems to stay in Greece for the time being. Got 1.1690 from Thomas Cook this morning which was the best in town (they usually are).
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: Jules on March 16, 2012, 01:13:08 AM
We got that rate a couple of weeks ago as well at Thomas Cook
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: Jimbo on March 16, 2012, 01:54:39 AM
ICE is currently 1.1765

Not brilliant at the moment!
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: loftyscot on March 17, 2012, 09:54:31 AM
I think the markets are waiting on Waspman making a move.    ;)

What do you think just now, should we stick or twist with the current rate.
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: Jimbo on March 17, 2012, 04:54:18 PM
We don't have a Drachma rate yet!
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: Lesley on March 17, 2012, 08:58:46 PM
Jimbo according to Nigel it would be 60% less so cheaper and more money all round for local products mind you tea bags might be much more expensive ..................Personally love a frappe!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: Jimbo on March 18, 2012, 12:12:38 PM

This doesn't bode well:

http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/54169 (http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/54169)
Title: Re: Exchange Rate
Post by: tonyco1 on March 19, 2012, 04:51:21 AM
Wage cuts - pension cuts - bad news for normal people while the rich seem to make an even bigger pile!
The Greeks will survive though, in spite of their friendly politicians!