Is this the right time to Invest in Greece?
Despite the fiscal crisis that shocked Greece between 2010 and 2018, the country’s main advantages have not gone anywhere, and it is still one of Europe’s most prominent destinations for inward investment – partly because of the financial crisis itself.
Over the past decade there have been under way several restructuring and reform processes in both the private and public sectors. The five-year action plan for sustainable economic growth – known as Greece 2021 – is probably the most ambitious among them. It aims to achieve fair economic growth by building a productive and specialized economy. In order to do so it encourages the promotion of exports as well as the development of high value-added sectors, such as real estate, information and communication technologies, energy, and life sciences.
These major steps are well seen by the international financial institutions. The IMF forecasts growth of 3.8% for the Greek economy in 2021 – below the eurozone average of 4.4%. However, the Fund sees the economy growing by 5% in 2022, compared to the eurozone forecast of 3.8%.
The optimistic forecasts for the Greek economy are of great importance in the eyes of foreign investors. All signs indicate that property prices in Greece are yet to rise from the historic lows of 2008. Back then, the economic crisis led to decrease by more than 40% in property prices. Since then, property prices show a steady upward trend, but the 2020 values are still 35% lower than those listed on the eve of the crisis.
.jpg)
The Greek government does everything on its part to attract foreign investments, including the Golden Visa Greece – a procedure that allows foreign investors and their families to get residential permits. Finance Minister Christos Staikouras also called lately to foreign investors to invest in the country, saying that “the Greek economy showed remarkable resistance to the consequences of the pandemic, and by fully exploiting EU funds will enter into a period of high and sustainable growth rates”.
