EY: Greece Moving Up as Attractive Investor Destination

Panoramic view of Athens. Photo source: GNTO

Greece is winning over more investors and attracting foreign direct investments (FDI), according to the latest EY Attractiveness Survey for Greece presented this week by Georgios Papadimitriou, Country Managing Partner EY Greece, during the recent InvestGR Forum 2023 in Athens.

Thanks to investor-friendly policies and reforms, and political stability, the country managed in 2022 to boost its FDI projects by 57 percent, achieving one of the highest growth rates in Europe and ranking 19th among European countries for the year. It is also Greece’s strongest performance since 2000, when the European report was launched.

At the same time, the number of FDI projects recorded in Greece over the last three years, accounted for 35 percent of all investments in the 2000-2022 period.

Georgios Papadimitriou, Country Managing Partner EY Greece. Photo source:

The report goes on to add that investors’ perception of the country’s attractiveness remains positive with several key indicators further improving.

Meanwhile, according to an FT Longitude study carried out on 250 executives from foreign companies worldwide in the July 3-26 period, appetite for investments in Greece is strong.

Key takeaways of the EY Attractiveness Survey 2023 for Greece include:

– 40 percent of respondents said they intend to invest or expand their operations in the country; the highest figure since the launch of the survey in 2019. Over the past three years, this percentage has gone from 28 percent in 2020 to 37 percent in 2022

– the main sectors where respondents said they expect to increase their current investments over the next three years are business services (61 percent) and logistics (58 percent)

– 60 percent of respondents said their perception of Greece as a location where their company might establish or develop activities has improved over the last year

– 67 percent believe that Greece’s attractiveness will further improve over the next three years

Source: EY Greece.

– areas that should improve if the country wants to maintain its competitive position in the global economy: developing education and skills (31 percent), reducing taxation (28 percent), and supporting high-tech industries and innovation, such as cleantech (26 percent)

– survey participants listed increasing inflation (28 percent), the energy crisis (23 percent), social and economic instability (21 percent), and cost of labor (20 percent) as the most significant risks that could threaten Greece’s overall attractiveness as an investment destination.

Source: EY Greece.

Greek PM: We need to achieve new, ambitious goals

“In order to maintain and improve this positive course, we are called to achieve new, ambitious goals: accelerating the administration of justice; intensifying our fight against tax evasion, which means more social justice; investing in climate adaptation and mitigation of the consequences of natural disasters; reforming the state for the benefit of the citizens; moving ahead with the green transition for cheaper and greener energy; and, finally, expanding the digital transition to all administration procedures,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis commenting on the findings.

On his part, while presenting the EY’s Attractiveness Survey Greece 2023, Papadimitriou said Greece’s performance “is improving” and the country is gradually finding “its rightful place” on the global investment map.

“In an environment where small and large competitor countries compared to Greece are fighting with the same intensity to attract investment, there is no room for complacency. We must all safeguard the conquests of recent years, systematically present our strong cards and, above all, continue with greater intensity the reforms and interventions in the areas where there is still room for improvement,” he said.

In its 6th year, the InvestGR Forum 2023 is focused on foreign investments in Greece. The main theme of the event is the existing framework for foreign investment and, above all, the formulation of proposals and options to improve this framework.