Economy of Greece

The government plans an early repayment of up to €5 billion of bailout loans to eurozone countries this year, two government officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

The eurozone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lent Greece about €280 billion during the crisis on the condition that it impose tough austerity measures.

Credit ratings agency S&P on Friday revised its outlook on Greece to "positive" from "stable," saying the tight fiscal regime will continue to spur a reduction in the government debt ratio.

A decade ago, Greece was in the throes of a devastating debt crisis marked by years of austerity, hardship and unrest. Now, officials and investors say 2024 could be the year its rebound is finally complete.

The Greek economy is forecast to grow nearly 3% this year, approaching its pre-crisis size of 2009 and far outpacing the euro zone average of 0.8%.

One in three euros that Greece earns each year comes from tourism, demonstrating the Greek economy's dependence on the sector. 

Greece's economy is seen growing by 2.3% this year, well above the euro zone average, Greek central banker Yannis Stournaras said on Monday.

The projection is lower than a government estimate of 2.9% expansion.

Progress in the indexes of the outward-looking side of the Greek economy, such as exports and the attraction of foreign direct investments, is recorded in the bulletin of the Reforms Observatory of the Center for Planning and Economic Research (KEPE).

Athinon Avenue started the week's final session with a considerable drop in what has been the second straight week of decline for its benchmark, and saw turnover shrink further on Friday. However, it still managed to cover most of the ground lost over the course of the day to close with contained losses thanks to some of its blue chips.

Real estate was a huge draw, again, for foreign investors in 2023, accounting for almost 1 out of every 2 euros that flowed into Greece.

The Bank of Greece reported that in 2023, capital inflows from abroad reached a record high of 2.133 billion euros for the second consecutive year, compared to 1.975 billion euros in 2022, but also 1.17 billion euros in 2021.

As the Greek economy grows, so does the state's degree of flexibility for supporting the primary sector, Minister of Rural Development and Food Lefteris Avgenakis said on Wednesday in his message to the conference of the Panhellenic Association of Exporters on the topic "The Growing Extroversion of the Greek Economy."

Nominal wage increases should not be excessive and should be proportionate to economy's ability to sustain them, the Greek Parliament's Budget Office warned in a report released on Monday on the fourth quarter of 2023.