Warning about its prospects growth of the country, included in its report Commission For Greece in the context of spring forecasts 2025.
The Commission points out that while Greece has made some progress steps, it continues to have a limited improvement in labor productivity, which negatively affects the capabilities of long -term growth, while stressing that increased productivity per hour remains lower than the EU average.
Indeed, as official data prove, despite efforts to boost productivity in Greece, the country is still lagging behind the average of the European Union. According to Eurostat, labor productivity in Greece remains about 60% of the average EU, despite the fact that Greek workers are employed on average 39.8 hours a week, compared to 36 hours in the EU.
At the same time, KEPE research shows that although the overall productivity of the production rates increased 2.9% in 2024 when working hours are used as a labor inflow and 3.8% when employment is used as a labor inflow, productivity per hour of work is still low compared to other EU countries.
In the Commission’s report, it is proposed in response to timely and complete implementation of the recovery fund investments, policies that will improve the effectiveness of public investment and encourage innovation, especially in areas of high added value, although if issues related to public administration and public administration are resolved.
However, it is noted that despite significant investment in infrastructure and digital projects in recent years, timeless weaknesses remain, such as inadequate technological upgrading of businesses, lack of digital skills in the workforce, and institutional delays in authorization and justice.
The structure of the Greek economy
As has repeatedly pointed out official bodies, a mound in dealing with the above -mentioned private sector weaknesses in Greece is the structure of the Greek economy itself, which makes up 99.7% of very small, small and medium -sized enterprises.
This means that the overwhelming majority of Greek businesses presents:
- Limited investments in technological equipment, digitization and R&D, making them less productive than the largest companies that can exploit economies of scale.
- The fragmentation of the Greek market due to the abundance of small businesses leads to low extroversion and low added value, as Greek media often do not have structures to access foreign markets, and remain in domestic demand.
- The existence of many small businesses is linked to less specialized tasks and lower organizational performance, reducing productivity by employee, which according to Eurostat is attributed to the structure of Greek entrepreneurship.
- SMEs, among others, face limited access to capital and networks, as they have greater obstacles to gaining bank funding or European funds, while rarely participating in collaborative networks and clusters that enhance know -how and productive partnerships.
Therefore, the individual measures to boost investment and production are in a positive direction, although their results will always hit the “ceiling” set by the structure of the Greek economy itself.