Improving competitiveness is the biggest challenge facing the Greek economy, according to the Governor of the Bank of Greece, Yannis Stournara, who called on the “systemic political parties to show consensus”.

As he mentioned during his award in New York from Capital LinkGreece for all that it is success storyfalls short in terms structural competitiveness compared to most European countries, despite significant improvement in recent years. For example, according to the global competitiveness index of the Swiss institute IMD for 2024, Ireland is in 4th place, Portugal in 36th and Greece in 47th. A similar picture emerges if one examines data from the World Bank, which constructs six indicators of overall governance for more than 200 countries for the period 1996-2022. Greece lags behind Portugal and Ireland over the entire period and in every single indicator.

This significant lag is responsible for the country’s large current account deficit, which corresponds to 6.2% of GDP in 2023.

In order to reverse this image, as Mr. Stournaras, required to to implemented a wide range of ambitious reforms with the aim of improving structural competitiveness. These reforms should aim to eliminate structural weaknesses such as delays in the administration of justice, red tape in public administration and the digital skills deficit. At the same time, however, it is necessary to eliminate the remaining restrictive practices that prevent the competitive functioning of the markets, by removing barriers to entry and opening the markets for goods and services to competition.

In order for the necessary reforms to proceed, according to the governor of the Bank of Greece, broader ones are required political consultations. On the contrary, the obsession with ideological approaches poses obstacles to the implementation of proven solutions in areas such as tax evasion, the fight against lawlessness and impunity, the deviation from the educational data of the rest of Europe, the delay in the administration of justice.

He made special reference to Greek-Turkish relationsas, as he noted, the high defense costs faced by our country disproportionately burden Greek taxpayers. For this reason, “the effort to find points of convergence must continue with regard to Greek-Turkish relations, which significantly affect the economic and social performance of Greece, its stability and security”, he stressed.

Regarding the political developmentsthe head of the Central Bank noted that the political shift towards a divided and fragmented political landscape in Greece – as is already happening in Europe with the rise of anti-systemic populism – which has already gone through a major and painful economic crisis, would have devastating social and economic consequences.

He found that the “systemic” Greek political parties recognize as self-evident pillars the political and economic stability and the European course of the country, a fact that “creates a unique opportunity to cultivate a culture of consent in our country”.