Although Greece had to agree to drastic and painful reforms, especially pension cuts and the abolition of tax breaks for farmers, positive changes are being fe. The yield on government bonds, as the main indicator of the risk of investing in the country, was finally reduced, which is a good sign for institutional investors. Although leaders of Greece still have a lot to do, the confidence of investors is slowly returning.
It can be widely agreed that there is a general optimistic opinion that Greece is slowly getting back on track. The International Monetary Fund predicts that Greece, if it keeps a tight fiscal policy, from mid to late 2017 , it will reach economic growth of 2.8% and lower unemployment and in 2018 a surplus of around 3.5% of GDP. In this regard, investors can hope at least hope for a yield in the long term. However, Greece’s unemployment rate is still at a very high level , as much as 24%. Also, a large number of private sector employees are employed temporarily or on a part-time basis. In addition, the public debt exceeding 180% of GDP, which yield on bonds, is the best indicator of risk to investors, which in the meantime has stabilized and has even fallen into 7.7%, which is certainly a good sign.
Many believe that over time everything will fall back into place. Now that the economy has started to grow, along with structural changes and stimulating investment policy, Greece can hope that foreign investment will increase and signs are looking more positive. This will naturally have a positive impact on further economic growth and faster recovery from the long-term debt crisis. Program development is primarily oriented to the development of entrepreneurship and creation of favorable conditions for investors. For example, the new Investment Law, adopted in 2016, offers potential investors various incentives. They also simplified investment procedures and increased transparency and efficiency of the process. The first step has been made and the result should be further economic growth, increased employment, reduced investment risk and the growth of the investment. The attractiveness of Greece for investments is also due to the fact that it’s an EU member, as well as its geopolitical position between East and West. This is primarily important to the US who will, because of that, do anything to help Greece to stand on its feet. On the other hand, in dealing with its most pressing problems – the recent terrorist attacks, asylum seekers arriving from all sides, increasingly frequent calls against the EU from Euro sceptic politicians in Europe means less and less attention is being paid to the debt crisis in Greece. Whether Greece will have the strength to get back on track or if new problems will knock on the EU door, time will tell.
