Greece Hits Biggest Year-on-Year GDP Growth Rate in the Eurozone

Eurostat reported on Tuesday that Greece had the largest gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the third quarter of 2021 in the entire Eurozone.

The statistics agency said that Greece’s GDP increased a staggering 13.7% in the third quarter compared to last year. To put that in perspective, the average growth rate amongst EU countries was 3.9%.

Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said that the country’s growth rate for the past nine months has now reached 9.3%, significantly surpassing the 6.9% projection made for the same period by the government earlier this year.

This growth indicates that Greece’s year of recovery from 2020’s pandemic losses has been a success and positions the country to pivot into 2022, where it will have to convert its growth into long-term stability.

Greece’s growth in 2021 credited to tourism and recovery

Greece’s impressive third-quarter performance has been credited to a return of tourism and the success of Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The recovery plan, commonly known as “Greece 2.0,” was introduced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis this past Spring and endorsed by the European Commission this Summer. Mitsotakis said that the plan was designed to build Greece “a bridge to the post-Covid-19 era.”

When the European Commission updated their forecast of Greece’s growth last month, they noted the success of both the tourism industry and the recovery plan in Greece’s rebound from the first year of the pandemic:

“The impact of the pandemic is expected to gradually soften, while the accommodative fiscal and monetary policy, coupled with the strong boost from the Recovery and Resilience Plan, are set to sustain the momentum going forward. Emergency support measures are being adapted to the evolving needs of the economy, and expected to be largely phased out by the end of 2021, supporting the reduction of the general government deficit.”

More than 8.6 million tourists visited Greece from January to August during 2021. The Bank of Greece reported that this is a 79% increase in the number of last year’s visitors during the same time frame.

2021’s blockbuster turnout in the tourism sector led to a 135% increase in earnings from 2020. The revenue for the first eight months of 2021 totaled 6.6 billion euros.

Greece welcomed more than two million visitors to its shores during just the months of July and August of 2021 — more than any other European nation — marking real success in its vital tourism industry despite the pandemic that is still raging across the world.

The two most popular months for Greek tourism haven’t seen that many visitors since 2019, which was a record year for tourism in the country.

The relative success of the season is due not only to the country’s well-established hospitality industry but also the nation’s acceptance of a range of different vaccines — not only the major Western inoculations — for proof of vaccination.