Greek economy – International ratings agencies predict strong growth prospects

International credit rating agencies "see" strong prospects for the development of the Greek economy, on which, after all, the upgrades of the Greek debt in the last two years were based to a significant degree.

The three major rating agencies - S & P, Fitch, and Moody's - note that the continuation of the reforms and the resources of 31 billion euros (from grants and loans) of the Recovery Fund, the disbursement of which is expected to increase from 2022 and remain high by 2026, and will give a big boost to investment and therefore to growth in the medium term.

The rapid reduction of Greek banks' red loans, mainly due to their securitization through the "Hercules" plan promoted by the government, is also expected to contribute to high GDP growth as it will enable banks to accelerate lending to businesses and households.

Growth will help de-escalate public debt, which all three major credit rating agencies predict will gradually decline from the very high level of over 200% of GDP, to which it rose last year due to the pandemic and large-scale support measures. that households and businesses received by the government.

S&P

S&P, which upgraded Greece's credit rating to "BB" from "BB-" in April this year, said it expects strong growth performance for the period 2022-2024. For 2022, it forecast GDP growth of 5.8% following the recovery in 2021 from the coronavirus crisis, which will continue in 2023 and 2024 at rates of 5% and 4.5%, respectively.

"For the next three years we expect that the economic growth of Greece will be higher than the average of the Eurozone, something that also applies to the increase of its per capita GDP. We expect that its economic performance will be fueled mainly by domestic demand and exports this...