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“By taking away VAT refunds worth 1.5 billion
euros from both the market and the businesses'
liquidity, [the state] will kill the efforts to enhance
the extroversion of the Greek economy and will
erase any benefits from the growth of exports dur-
ing the past two-years, plunging the economy into
deeper recession, and leading to more company
closures and the loss of thousands of jobs. And all
this at a time when Greek Exporters are recording
a year-on-year drop in orders, while export growth
is being significantly reduced”
. This statement
was made by the president of the Panhellenic
Exporters Association, Christina Sakellaridi, fol-
lowing reports that the Ministry of Finance is con-
sidering to put a new “temporary freeze” on VAT
refunds to export companies. According to news
reports, the Ministry considers reducing total VAT
refunds to beneficiary companies in 2012 by 30%
as compared to 2011, while refunds worth many
billion euros that were accumulated during the
past three-years are still pending.
Ms. Sakellaridi also pointed out that
“at meetings
between the PSE and Troika representatives it
was made clear ... that the obligations of the State
should be immediately offset against those of the
companies, in order to enhance liquidity, the num-
ber one current challenge for Greek Exporters”.
She also stressed that
“entrepreneurship should,
at long last, stop being demonized in Greece, and
extrovert companies should stop being punished.
In this era of cutting-edge technology, the failure
of crosschecking obvious data regarding thou-
sand honest and law-abiding export companies of
this country, is totally inconceivable”.
Ms. Sakellaridi also reminded that
“PSE-member
companies employ more than 199,000 people”
and that
“if export growth is not sustained at
above 8% in 2012, the recession in the Greek
economy will be one percentage point deeper
than currently estimated
”. The president of PSE
added that
“now that the PSI scheme has been
completed, the loan facilities for Greece have
been activated and everybody –the President of
the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Government
and the Opposition, the country's productive
forces and citizens– agree that the economy's
growth is a top priority, enhancing the companies'
liquidity and supporting extrovert entrepreneur-
ship is the only recovery option, without any dis-
count and procrastination”.
The first estimates regarding the course of Greek
exports in January 2012 show that the total value of
exports reached 1,580.2 million euros, compared to
1,437.3 million euros in the same month of the pre-
vious year (up by 9.9%). Excluding petroleum prod-
ucts, the value of exports stood at 1,226.4 million
euros, compared to 1,188.9 million euros in the
same month of 2011, increased by 3.2%.
The total value of exports, excluding petroleum
products, for the twelve-month period February
2011-January 2012 increased by 8.0% as com-
pared to the twelve-month period from February
2010 to January 2011.
As far as product categories are concerned, there
was an increase in the exports of: Raw Materials
(+66.3%), Petroleum Products (+59.2%),
Manufactured Products (+0.2%), Machinery-
Equipment (+17.4%) and Miscellaneous
Manufactured Articles (+2.1%).
In contrast, 4 product categories sustained export
losses: Food and Live animals (-7.6%),
Beverages & Tobacco (-0.6%), Oils (-3.7%) and
Confidential items (-32.4%).
According to initial ELSTAT estimates, the total
value of imports fell to 2,625.7 million euros in
January 2012 from 3,916.4 million euros in
January 2011 (-33%)
Excluding petroleum products, the value of
imports stood at 2,263.4 million euros, compared
to 2,655.1 million euros in the same month of
2011, reduced by 14.8%.
In the twelve-month period February 2011-
January 2012, the total value of imports, exclud-
ing petroleum products, fell by 13.2%.
Trade with Greece
49
Greek imports took
a plunge in 2011,
owing to the reces-
sion and the slump in
domestic demand. Last
year Greece imported
goods of a total value
of 43.27 billion euros,
compared to 48.1 bil-
lion euros in 2010, i.e. a
reduction of 10.05%.
Excluding petroleum
products, imports fell
by 13.2% (from 36.7
billion euros in 2010 to
31.8 billion euros in
2011).
”
“