Economy

Greece has managed to achieve a strong economy that is growing fast after the implementation of stabilization policies in recent years. Greece remains a net importer of industrial and capital goods, foodstuffs, and petroleum. Leading exports are manufactured goods, food and beverages, petroleum products, cement, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Greece enjoys a high standard of living, ranking 24th on the 2006 Human Development Index and 22nd on The Economist's 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index and it has an average per capita income that has been estimated at $23,518 for the year 2006. Greece's present prosperity is largely owed to the post-WWII "Greek economic miracle". The implementation of a number of structural and fiscal reforms, combined with considerable European Union funding over the last 25 years and increasing private consumption have contributed to the fact that the Greek GDP annual growth consistently out-performs the European average.

Principal Sectors

Agriculture

Greek agriculture employs 528,000 farmers, 12% of the total labour force and produces 5.1% of the national GDP. Greece produces a wide variety of crops and livestock production.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing sector accounts for about 13% of GDP. Due to its abundance of high quality raw materials, including fruits and vegetables, olives and olive oil, dairy products, and other specialty items, the food industry is one of the most profitable and fastest-growing areas of manufacturing, with significant export potential. Aquaculture is for example, one of the most dynamic sectors of food industry; in particular production of sea-bass and sea-bream is the highest in the world. According to ELKE, food processing in Greece increased its output from 1995 to 2000 by 27% and the 8 billion Euro industry employed more than 130,000, accounted for about 6.5% of GDP, roughly 25% of all exports. High-technology equipment production, especially for telecommunications, is also a fast-growing sector.

The ICT sector accounts for approximately 6% of GDP. Other important areas include textiles, building materials, machinery, transport equipment and electrical appliances.

Services

Services, including tourism, make up the largest and fastest-growing sector of the Greek economy, accounting for about 74.4% of GDP in 2006, and 68% of the labour force.

Tourism is a major source of foreign exchange earnings. Despite concerns over infrastructure and an often controversial tourism model, Greece welcomed a record setting 16.5 million tourists in 2004. At the same time, tourism consumption increased considerably since the turn of the millennium, from US$ 17.7 bn. in 2000 to US$ 29.6 bn. in 2004. For that same year, tourism receipts accounted for 14.3% of Greece's total GDP while the number of jobs directly or indirectly related to the tourism sector were 659,719 and represented 16.5% of the country's total employment for that year.

Banking

The Greek Banking sector is an important source of employment, revenue and foreign investment for Greece. With total assets of 260bn Euros, employing 63,040 people (2005), Greek banks are among the top performers on a European level with core revenue growth (17% yoy for the combined three majors), among the highest in Europe. Benefiting from a largely deregulated -and often widely criticised- market, the five biggest banks (The National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank Ergasias, Emporiki Bank, and Piraeus Bank) recently reported net profits after tax of 1.24 billion euros, an increase of 13.86% over the previous financial year.

Greece's 5 largest commercial banks operate a network of 950 branches across the Balkans, employing 16,000 people there and accounting for 16% of the market share. Total assets in the Balkan banking sector amounted to 36bn euros in 2005.

Shipping

Greece has an ancient seafaring tradition and has built an impressive shipping industry based on its geographic location and the entrepreneurial ability of its ship owners. The Greek-owned fleet is the largest in the world with a total of 3,850 ships of over 1.000 gt capacity and a total capacity of 98.195.100 gt, translating to 15.5% of the international shipping capacity. Due to widespread use of convenience flags, the fleet flying the Greek flag is somewhat smaller but nevertheless ranks 4th in the World, representing 40% of EU fleet capacity and 5% globally. In 2004, the Greek commercial fleet contributed approximately €4 bn to the Greek economy and employed approximately 11,000 people.