The Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, spoke at the 8th Annual Economic Conference of the Hellenic Business Association.
“In recent years, the myth has been cultivated in Greece that a complete deindustrialization has allegedly occurred, every production process has stopped and Greece has become exclusively a service economy. In fact the data shows that in recent years there has been a very significant progress, I would say a renaissance of manufacturing and industry,” Hatzidakis pointed out.
In fact, he cited the relevant official statistics: “According to ELSTAT, industry has increased its contribution to GDP from 12% in 2019 to 13.8% in 2023.
At the same time investment has increased by 53% since 2019, the biggest increase across the EU, our exports have doubled between 2008 and 2023 to 98 billion euros while in 2020–2022 the share of goods in exports exceeded significantly the respective share of services and in 2023 the ratio was about 50-50. At the same time, the share of high-tech exports in total goods exports has increased.
“It may not have been a revolution, but the direction is positive. And anyway, there was no deindustrialization,” Hatzidakis noted.
The minister also made special reference to energy, underlining the progress that has been made in the green transition which will allow the country to turn from an importer to an exporter of energy. “This is a factor of optimism for the country, for its competitiveness and prospects, not only with environmental but also with economic importance,” he stressed. “However, a substantial European policy is also needed, especially in the area of networks, as the Draghi report rightly pointed out.”
