Greece Economy Shows Promising Signs Of Growth

Greek economy is the 51^st largest economy in the world with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $218.032 billion per annum. The data of 2018 shows that Greece has stood out to be the seventeenth largest economy in the European Union, which consists of 28 countries. It is considered one of the developed or advanced countries in the world with a high income economy. The main export partner countries to which Greece is linked are Italy, Germany, Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Lebanon. The products that are exported from Greece due which add to such a flourishing economy are petroleum oils, aluminium, iron and steel articles, electrical and electronic equipments, pharmaceutical products, plastic articles and also some fruits and vegetables.

The important industries in Greece are shipping and tourism. Greece was recorded to be the 16^th most visited countries in the world with international tourists. Coming to the shipping industry of Greece, the Greek Merchant Navy is the largest in the world and the Greek owned water vessels accounts for 15% of the global dead weight. There has been a miraculous increase in demand of maritime transportation between Greece and Asia which has turned out to be very profitable for the shipping industry.

The country also is a significant agricultural producer among countries of EU. Due to its rich foreign trade and investments, Greece often stands out extraordinarily as the largest foreign investor in Albania, Bulgaria and also North Macedonia. The telecommunication company of Greece, OTE has become a remarkable investor in the Balkan countries.

Greece was the founding member of committees like Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Organization of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC). The country also went on to strengthen its economy by changing its currency to euro from Greek drachma, the value of which 340.75 drachma making 1 euro.

HISTORY: The economy of Greece was always not to flourishing. After the World War ii, the country was left devastated. This followed with many significant incidents like The Great Recession, Greek Government debt crisis, a large part of the European debt crisis, which had plunged the economy to fall at a great depth. The GDP of Greece at that point of time was recorded to touch up to -9.1% which is a terrible growth rate. Gradually, Greece started to recover from the high debt condition from 2012. The country returned to its modest growth of 1.4% in the recent year of 2017 and 1.9% in 2018.

The country’s development after the Second World War has been termed as the Greek Economic Miracle. The people of Greece have a very high standard of living and the country records a very High Human Development Index, ranking 31^st in the world. Greece’s main industries are shipping, tourism, industrial products, food and tobacco processing, textiles, chemicals, mining and petroleum.

The Greek crisis was triggered by the Great Recession. The country faced a high budget deficit and also merged in a high public debt to GDP ratio. The country started to lose control of its public debt to GDP ratio which was recorded to be 127% in 2009. As a member of the Eurozone, the country had no independent monetary policy flexibility. Finally the country started to face punishments in the form of high borrowing rates by the markets, which made it impossible to cope up with financing its debt since early 2010. The Greek economy faced a severe depression during the restoration of democracy in 1974 as the Greek government revised its forecast from 3.7% GDP in the early 2009 to 12.7% GDP in October 2009. The banking industry’s big shot companies like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase helped out Greece by covering big parts of its borrowings.

Thankfully, after recovery, Greece has one of the very good economies in the world today and is proceeding towards a more flourishing future.