SMEs have competitive handicap, OECD study shows

Small and medium-sized enterprises in Greece have a serious handicap to overcome before they can rival their foreign peers, as they have no access to funding, their export performance is poor and they are not supported by a modern network of infrastructure, according to a special report published on Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on SMEs and entrepreneurship.

The Greek crisis has had a major impact on Greek SMEs, traditionally the backbone of Greece's economy. The OECD report stresses that credit conditions in Greece are yet to revert to pre-crisis levels: In 2017, 23 percent of Greek SMEs cited lack of financing as their most serious problem, while in the European Union, this rate only came to 7 percent. The number of SMEs asking for funding halved from 2010 to 2017, the report adds.

The OECD further notes that the export...