Staikouras: The redirection of the country’s development model towards investments and exports is becoming a reality

“The redirection of the country’s development model towards investments and exports is becoming a reality,” said Finance Minister Christos Staikouras in today’s opening speech at the “2022 Global Innovation Summit”, which is being organized, for the first time, in Athens by the World Association of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC), in collaboration with the Economic Forum of Delphi and the Competitiveness Council of Greece (CompeteGr).

As the minister mentioned, “in today’s conditions of prolonged high uncertainty and instability, strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of our economies is a major challenge. Governments are called upon to cooperate and develop effective and visionary policies. In the case of Greece, for the last three years the government has been planning and implementing policies that reflect the above principles and lead to significant achievements”.

Analyzing these developments, he underlined, first of all, the maintenance of the growth dynamics of the Greek economy, which, according to the recent Autumn Forecasts of the European Commission, will show growth of 6% this year -twice the European average-, while in 2023, the year significant slowdown of the European economy, and even recession in some countries, the Commission predicts three times the European average growth for Greece.

The minister then highlighted the positive change in the composition of the GDP. “The growth is combined with the improvement of the quality of the GDP, which gives sustainability to the economic growth and is a valuable springboard for the all-round, further strengthening of our country. This development stems from the impressive increase in investments and exports. This year it is estimated that, after last year’s record year, we will have a new historically high performance in foreign direct investment and exports of goods and services,” he said.

As Mr. Staikouras mentioned, exports in the 8th month of 2022 already reached 90% of last year’s annual performance, while the export base is diversifying significantly, recording a significant increase in exports of high-tech products, which are now approaching the percentages of industrialized countries, such as Germany . At the same time, foreign direct investments already reached 84% of the total of 2021 in the 8th month of 2022 – the year in which the highest performance of the last 20 years was recorded – and their positive course was recently certified by an OECD study.

“The redirection of the country’s development model towards investments and exports, which was a long-standing demand, in order to achieve high and sustainable growth, strengthen the competitiveness of our economy, reduce the investment gap and create many new jobs, it is becoming a reality,” the minister emphasized.

Mr. Staikouras also focused on the continued de-escalation of unemployment, the drastic reduction of “red” loans in the banks’ portfolios, the continued improvement of public finances – and, in particular, the limitation of the primary deficit this year and the reduction of debt as percent of GDP, which reached 13 percentage points in 2021, was the largest annual decline in the history of the eurozone and is forecast to continue this year – all 11 upgrades of the Greek economy by rating agencies in the last three years, of which 4 were this year, after the start of the war in Ukraine.

“It is clear that, despite the difficulties and the international instability, Greece has turned the page”, underlined the minister, closing his speech. And he added: “As a result of the implemented policy, which includes targeted, temporary support measures for the most vulnerable part of society, as well as permanent reductions in taxes and social security contributions, a far-sighted publishing strategy, interventions to strengthen liquidity in the real economy, implementation of structural changes and privatizations and optimal utilization of European resources, our country emerged as a champion in improving the business environment in the last three years, according to a recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. We are determined to continue the hard work in order to overcome the difficulties and make Greece and Europe stronger.”

RES-EMP

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