Trade with Greece
94
2011, registering a 5.0% year-on-year increase.
Despite the slight deceleration of the growth rate,
as compared to the corresponding change during
the first semester (5.4%), this is indeed an excel-
lent performance.
Actually, in a period of just 9 months, Greek
exports managed to break the 20 billion euro bar-
rier, succeeding to “climb at levels that have no
precedent in the country’s modern history”, as
pointed out. And this despite the existence of
severe pressures in the international environ-
ment, as well as the emergence of political and
government instability in many countries that
receive a large part of Greece’s exports.
Moreover, the overall effort is definitely not facili-
tated by the lack of easy credit in manufacture,
which aggravates the general pressures. On the
other hand, a doubtlessly positive role has been
played by the reduction of production costs, as
well as the systematic effort to contain the admin-
istrative cost of exports, which are part of a prac-
tical effort to find methods for improving the com-
petitiveness of the Greek economy (which,
according to the recent “Doing Business 2014”
report of the World Bank, is dramatically improv-
ing its position in the relevant rankings).
As far as the destination of Greek exports is con-
cerned, we can see that during the first nine-
months of 2013 (including petroleum products)
46.44% of exports was directed to the EU,
increased by 7.6% year-on-year, while the
remaining 53.56% was taken up by Third
Countries (a 2.8% increase). That said, the distri-
bution of exports is slightly altered in favour of the
EU, since the relevant percentage stood at
45.29% in 2012. In contrast, if the relevant calcu-
lations are performed without including petroleum
products, the distribution of Greek exports is dra-
matically changed, since the EU absorbed
64.58% in the first nine-months of 2013, whereas
Third Countries took up only 35.42% (the corre-
sponding percentages for 2012 were 62.93% and
37.06% respectively). This fact demonstrates the
dynamism of the petroleum product exports of the
Greek refining industry, which managed to
respond to the increased demand for liquid fuel
from many countries, especially around the
Mediterranean basin.
Above all, though, this resumption of access to
European markets attests in practice to the
demonstrable recovery of international trust
towards the Greek economy, a fact that, at the
same time, is a recognition of the huge effort
made in order to deal with the unprecedented cri-
sis that has been plaguing the country for the past
five years.
Wishing to obtain a more detailed picture of both
the destinations, and the composition of Greek
exports, we will look at the data for the 1st semes-
ter, presenting the following two tables (prepared
by the Panhellenic Exporters Association – Export
Research Centre).
The 20 top markets for Greek products
(1st Semester 2013)
It should be noted that two countries that lie on
the east and the west of Greece, i.e. Turkey and
Italy, represent the two most important export
destinations, followed by Germany.
During the period under consideration, there was
an increase of exports to two of the three geo-
graphical areas (apart from the EU) that absorb
considerable shares of Greek exports, such as
other OECD countries (Iceland, Norway,
Switzerland and, mainly, Turkey), the Middle East
and N. Africa. Greek exports to geographical
areas with low export volumes have declined, the
Rank for the
1st Semester
2013
Rank for the
1st Semester
2012
COUNTRY
Value (€ mn)
1
1
Turkey
1,572.5
2
2
Italy
1,317.8
3
3
Germany
893.7
4
4
Bulgaria
647.6
5
5
Cyprus
514.9
6
12
Gibraltar
514.7
7
6
USA
492.5
8
7
Un. Kingdom
410.1
9
9
Libya
381.0
10
24
Egypt
347.1
11
11
France
344.7
12
8
FYROM
335.4
13
15
Spain
309.6
14
14
Lebanon
282.6
15
13
Romania
280.1
16
22
Algeria
230.7
17
16
Netherlands
221.6
18
17
Russia
195.3
19
23
Saudi Arabia
190.7
20
20
Israel
184.8
