Greece Still Laggard in EU New Business Births

Greece is still slow with regards to new business births in the EU remaining last on the list, according to data released by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical service.

The number of new enterprise births in the EU as a proportion of the total number of active EU enterprises appears to be showing signs of recovery at 9.3 percent in 2017, stable compared with 2016, and up from 9 percent in 2012.

Topping the list of new business births were Lithuania with a 19.7 percent rate, followed by Portugal (15.8 percent), and Slovakia (13.7 percent). At the same time, new enterprise births boosted total employment in the EU to 2.4 percent in 2017.

Last on the list were Greece with a 4.5 percent rate and Belgium at 6.4 percent.

Countries recording the highest increases in new business births in 2017 against 2016 were Finland (2.9 percentage points), Slovakia (2.7 percentage points), Hungary (2.1 percentage points), Estonia (1.2 percentage points), and Lithuania (0.9 percentage points).

The largest declines were registered in Malta (down by 6.1 percentage points), Latvia (-3.8 percentage points), Spain (-0.9 percentage points), Bulgaria and Italy (both -0.5 percentage points), as well as Austria and Sweden (-0.4 percentage points).