Greek Exports Continue Growing, Sakellaridi Notes, but Domestic Companies Need to Upgrade
A growing trend in Greek exports is continuing, Christina Sakellaridi, president of the Panhellenic Exporters Association, said of start-of-year trade figures on Wednesday.
"The rising trend of Greek exports is continuing despite difficulties facing Greek exporters, such as capital controls and high taxation," Sakellaridi said. "Particularly encouraging is the fact of a further reduction of the trade deficit, which is an open wound for the Greek economy. In this view, it is more necessary now than ever to offer incentives to domestic industries to invest on their modernization and expansion of their units to close even further a gap between imports and exports and to boost the domestic production to the benefit of growth and job positions," she noted.
Exports - including oil products - grew 3.3 pct to EU countries and by 14.3 pct to Third Countries. Excluding oil products, exports to the EU rose 7.5 pct and exports to Third Countries rose 9.3 pct in March compared with the same month last year. The EU accounted for 52.5 pct of Greek exports (including oil products), down from 55.1 pct in March last year, and for 68.4 pct excluding oil products.