IOBE: Tourism Driving the Greek Economy

Photo © GTP

Tourism fuelled the Greek economy in the third quarter of 2014, according to a Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research (IOBE) survey, released last week.

Key to this recovery, according to the think tank’s report, was the increased number of international tourist arrivals in the summer months, leading to a boost in services exports, the highest since the 2004 Olympic Games.

IOBE reports that for the July-September 2014 period, GDP increased by 1.6 percent compared with a 3.5 percent drop in the corresponding quarter of 2013. GDP increased by 0.6 percent in the first nine months of 2014, compared with a 4.3 percent drop in the same period of 2013.

Other growth contributing factors include an increase in private consumption (+3.1 percent from +1.0 percent in the second quarter) as well as expansion of exports (+8.6 percent) due to a sharp increase by 16.4 percent of service exports from tourism, ICT services and goods, but at a decreasing rate (+1.7 percent from +5.0 percent) in the first quarter.

The Athens-based research institute also found a decline in unemployment in the second quarter of July-September last year, at 25.5 percent compared to 27.2 percent in the corresponding quarter of 2013, and 1.1 percentage point lower than the previous quarter.

This decline is closely related to the areas where the GDP strengthened. In addition, of the 109,000 new jobs created compared to the third quarter of 2013, 51,000 were created in the services sector.

IOBE survey (in Greek)