<hdr>The World Factbook 1994: Greece<nl>Economy</hdr><body>
<list>
<item><hi format=bold>Overview:</hi> Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the basic entrepreneurial system overlaid in 1981-89 by a socialist system that enlarged the public sector from 55% of GDP in 1981 to about 70% in 1989. Since then, the public sector has been reduced to about 60% of GDP. Tourism continues as a major source of foreign exchange, and agriculture is self-sufficient except for meat, dairy products, and animal feedstuffs. Over the last decade, real GDP growth has averaged 1.6% a year, compared with the European Union average of 2.2%. Inflation is four times the EU average, and the national debt has reached 140% of GDP, the highest in the EU. Prime Minister PAPANDREOU will probably only make limited progress correcting the economy's problems of high inflation, large budget deficit, and decaying infrastructure. His economic program suggests that although he will shun his expansionary policies of the 1980s, he will avoid tough measures needed to slow inflation or reduce the state's role in the economy. He has limited the previous government's privatization plans, for example, and has called for generous welfare spending and real wage increases. In 1994, the GDP growth rate is likely to remain low, and inflation probably will accelerate, remaining the highest in the EU. PAPANDREOU'S failure to improve the country's economic performance will further strain relations with the EU. Since Greece's accession to the then EC in 1981, Athens' heavy reliance on EU aid—amounting to about 6% of Greek GDP annually—and its poor use of Union funds have riled Brussels. Its ailing economy will continue to be a drag on European economic and monetary union.
<item><hi format=bold>National product:</hi> GDP—purchasing power equivalent—$93.2 billion (1993)
<item><hi format=bold>National product real growth rate:</hi> 1% (1993)
<item><hi format=bold>National product per capita:</hi> $8,900 (1993)
<item>• <hi format=ital>consumption per capita:</hi> 3,610 kWh (1992)
</list>
<item><hi format=bold>Industries:</hi> food and tobacco processing, textiles, chemicals, metal products, tourism, mining, petroleum
<item><hi format=bold>Agriculture:</hi> including fishing and forestry, accounts for 15% of GDP and 24% of the labor force; principal products—wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, olives, tomatoes, wine, tobacco, potatoes; self-sufficient in food except meat, dairy products, and animal feedstuffs
<item><hi format=bold>Illicit drugs:</hi> illicit producer of cannabis and limited opium; mostly for domestic production; serves as a gateway to Europe for traffickers smuggling cannabis and heroin from the Middle East and Southwest Asia to the West and precursor chemicals to the East; transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin transiting the Balkan route
<item><hi format=bold>Economic aid:</hi>
<list style=hang>
<item>• <hi format=ital>recipient:</hi> US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-81), $525 million; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $1.39 billion
