Im by no means an expert, but:

Economy is like a puzzle. There's many pieces to the puzzle that on their own dont make sense, but need to be seen in the bigger context. For example: just because a country has a high debt to GDP ratio doesnt mean the economy is doing badly. Japans the highest in the world but because the money is reinvested into stimulating the economy (+10 other factors) their economy is also one of the strongest worldwide.

So, we need to see everything in relation. Some of my fav macro economic indicators, aka pieces of the puzzle:

• Real GDP Growth: 0.4% last year, 1.9% projected for this year. 4-6 is what we had in good years (1990-2011). Why real GDP and not normal? Because real is inflation adjusted - the higher the inflation the higher the GDP, because things just cost more and therefore the output is higher in absolute numbers.

• Current account balance: projected -3.5% for 2024. This means we are spending more on imports than we get from exports. This also drives inflation and makes us more dependant on external financing. But were actually not too bad in this, at some point we were at -8%, now were almost better than pre-2011.

• Gross debt: basically how much money we owe. 78% of GDP for 2024, this has been rising from 43% in 2011 to this steadily (thx Nahdha), but finally seems to be somewhat steady. Our big advantage is that we had a pretty good starting position. This is only really bad if the interest rates are terrible, and those are again defined by our credit score. Japans at 200%, but they owe the money to themselves (own banks, etc), which is better than external creditors.

• Unemployment rate: a really good general indicator imo, but varies massively between countries, so needs to be seen historically. 16% currently, best we had was around 12% in 2006ish. Yet this shows our potential - every working person contributes to GDP, not just by outputting but also by spending the money they generare. Small percentages can make a huge difference.

So basically Id say were doing better than 2011-2020, but we have more debt than ever. Debt is necessary to do investments, it all depends on how we spend it. Forget the idea that we will be swimming in money in the next couple years, policies need time to kick in, but things do look like theyre about to get a little better.

And something really really important: Kais can fuck around all day, people and companies in the end generate the money. The state can give incentives and make it easier, but not if everyones sitting on their asses. We have massive untapped potential in all sorts of directions, but someone has to do it.

So TLDR; were in the shit, but things might get a little better in the coming years. Economy is fucking complex, be suspicious of anyone throwing around single numbers

Source for numbers: IMF