Greece today is a developed industrial state with stable exports and imports. Recently, however, the threat of a financial crisis has hung over Athens. As a result of the huge external debt, a default has formed in the country. The economy is starting to crack at the seams. But is it all that bad? An overview of Greece's GDP indicators by years will help to understand this.
Economic Development
Gross product in the country in the mid-1990s was about 120 billion dollars. So, per capita, its volume sometimes reached $11.5 thousand. At that time, Greece's GDP was growing quite rapidly. The rate of increase varied within 1.5%. On the other hand, back in the 1970s, similar figures reached 5%.
In 1960, the country's economy prospered due to the high rate of industrial production. Its volume increased immediately by 11%, while agricultural goods - by only 3.5%. Nevertheless, for a long time it was the agricultural sector that played the main role in replenishing the state treasury. Its share in Greece's GDP was up to 31%. In turn, the industry was assigned approximately18% of the total gross product. The rest remained in the service sector, including tourism.
Unemployment naturally increased by the end of the 1990s. The hardest hit was the female half of the population, who was employed only in the tobacco and textile industries, and partly in the service sector. The fact is that since 1996, the Greek authorities have decided to carry out a series of reforms to support the agricultural and industrial sectors.
With the beginning of the 21st century, the country's economy has become dependent on huge investment and debt injections from the US and the Eurozone. This contributed to the formation of a monopoly, a decrease in support for agriculture and the development of inflation. Gradually, Greece adapted to Western European integration, but not without pain for ordinary citizens.
Economic Indicators
Currently, Greece is considered one of the most developed industrial states of Western Europe. GDP per capita here varies within 26 thousand dollars. This keeps Athens among the top 50 best performing countries in the world.
It is worth noting that the average development of production complements the public sector. In this way, the authorities stabilize the gross product. Trade, the agricultural sector, the banking system, stock exchanges are developed in the country. Most citizens are employed in such industries as textile, petrochemical, food, tourism, mining and metallurgical. Mechanical engineering and electrical production are developing rapidly. But the transport industry leavesmuch to be desired, especially for rail transportation.
GDP of Greece over the years can be seen as an extremely unstable and vulnerable economic indicator. Back in the early 2000s, its volume enviably increased to 5.2%. Negative jumps were insignificant, stability was noted. However, since 2008, the European economy has begun to forget what the real Greece is. The fall in GDP over the next few years averaged 6%. A negative maximum was recorded in 2011 - 7.1%.
As of 2014, GDP is just over $238 billion. Thus, in the World Bank ranking, Greece occupies only 44th place, behind even Finland and Pakistan. One of the main problems of today's economy is the shadow sector, as well as the corruption of officials. The share of such "expenses" from the total budget is up to 20%.
Structure of the economy
The industrial sector is disproportionately developed in the country by region. The most successful are considered to be the food, textile and light industries. The share of the employed population in this sector accounts for more than 21%. Metallurgical production also bears fruit every year. Following it in terms of profitability are the automotive and petrochemical industries.
Agriculture is gradually dying out due to the catastrophic lack of fertile land and low rainfall. For example: in Greece, arable land is only 30%.
As for exports,here Greece is rescued by oil products, cereals, citruses. By 2012, a sharp decline in demand for local goods was recorded. Export volumes decreased immediately by 22%. Until recently, Russia was considered the largest trading partner of Greece.
The number of visiting tourists is also gradually falling.
Debt Crisis
The dynamics of Greece's GDP is very dependent on external factors. Thus, the country's public debt for 2011 exceeded the budget by 40%. The fact is that a few years ago Athens borrowed about 80 billion euros. However, this amount could not bring the country's economy to the proper level. Soon the banks were talking about the approach of the financial crisis.
As a result, the country's economy began to burst at the seams. The only solution was to go into even more debt. The government began to sell off state property and look for large investors. However, no one wanted to link their future with a financially unstable country. Now the amount of debt exceeds the GDP of Athens by almost 2 times.
Regular default
2015 marked an even greater economic decline for Greece. Banks, factories, large enterprises and companies began to close, tens of thousands of people were left without work.
New authorities were formed to solve the problem in the country. The main promise of the Prime Minister was the partial cancellation of the debt. At the same time, the Greek government behaved extremely aggressively and arrogantly. Naturally, world banks did not agree with such a formulation of the issue. Long negotiations have not been successful.
As a result, it was decided to leave the EU, but very soon this issue was closed. The European Union once again lent Athens tens of billions of euros for financial reforms, and Greece gladly remained in the coalition. Today, the authorities continue to struggle with a deep default.
Greece GDP figures today
By mid-2015, the country's economy strengthened slightly. According to experts, Greece's GDP grew by 1.5% by June. This exceeded even the most optimistic expectations by almost 1%.
In the third quarter of 2015, a slight increase of another 0.4% is also forecast.
The goal of the new European support program for Greece is the growth of the country's GDP in the short term. By 2017, it is planned to increase the gross product from 2.7 to 3.1%.
