nomic growth engine, as international arrivals
remained above 1 billion, offering one in eleven
jobs worldwide and contributing 10% of world GDP
(data from the World Tourism Organisation - WTO).
It is worth noting that, always according to BoG
data, the current account deficit for 2015 stood at
only 7.5 million euros. The more-than-impressive
contraction of this deficit is mainly attributed to the
drop in international oil prices and, secondary, to
other reasons, such as the growth of revenues
from tourism. Without ignoring or underestimating
the coincidental nature of this development, we
would like to remind that the Greek crisis was
caused by the well-known “twin deficits” —the
budget and the current account deficit— and,
therefore, the above situation is very remarkable
and will hopefully become more permanent. For
the sake of history, we should mention that the
Trade with Greece
98
Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) estimates
recession for the year 2015 to 0.2%, revising its ini-
tial estimate of a 0.7% contraction in Gross
Domestic Product. This improved picture is attrib-
uted to the fact that the fourth quarter included final
data on the growth of the services sector, which
was better than expected.
Taking a more detailed account of the year 2015,
we can see that the new arrival record —a total of
26 million foreign visitors— was, above all,
achieved thanks to the contribution of Greece’s tra-
ditional markets. As far as the modes of trans-
portation are concerned, special mention should
be made to the significant contribution of tourist
road arrivals, not only from neighbouring countries
but also from Central Europe, which rose signifi-
cantly in the previous year and were mainly bound
for mainland Greece. This was a very important
