Five major obstacles to investment

The illegal economy, political uncertainty, high energy costs, the inefficiency of the state and corruption are the five main obstacles to the development of business activity in Greece. The underground economy is considered the biggest problem of the lot by almost half of the enterprises surveyed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The survey - presented this week by EBRD officials at the Bank of Greece - sampled 323 enterprises from March to August 2016 and indicated that the Greek economy's main problem from the respondents' point of view is the conditions of unfair competition resulting from the operation of tax-evading businesses.

Another significant obstacle is the high political uncertainty, which does not allow for healthy business activity. After energy costs and the inefficiency of state agencies, problems which mainly affect large...