Our View: Export Boom

It’s official: last year was another record year for Greek exports. The latest data show that Greek merchandise exports surpassed €50 billion in 2022, equal to roughly a quarter of Greece’s gross domestic product.

Both figures represent significant milestones in Greece’s transformation to an open and competitive economy. And they also represent the culmination of a decade-long export boom that began during the financial crisis: in 2008, the year the global financial crisis began, Greek exports totaled just €21 billion.

Unexpectedly, recent global challenges – the coronavirus pandemic and the current energy crisis – have served to further boost Greek exports.

Demand for Greek chemicals like detergents, disinfectants and cleaning agents jumped in the past three years as a result of Covid. And nimble producers like Papoutsanis SA − one of Greece’s oldest and foremost soap makers – have witnessed record export growth as a result. Likewise, Greek food exports have scaled new heights as consumers worldwide increasingly turn to healthy diets and quality producers. More recently, partly because of the energy crisis, Greece has become – for the first time ever – an energy exporter.

Those gains are here to stay and demonstrate that Greek exporters are both agile and competitive. Made in Greece products are increasingly making their mark on world markets.