ECONOMY

FinMin: Recession below 4 pct in 2013

In a speech delivered in Frankfurt on Thursday, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras confirmed that the final figures for 2013 will show Greece’s economy contracted below the 4 percent target and that the primary surplus came in far above the anticipated 812 million euros. He also explained the country’s new economic model and invited Germans to invest in Greece.

Addressing over 100 German entrepreneurs at the “Frankfurter Gesellschaft fur Handel, Industrie und Wissenschaft” business union, Stournaras presented “the new Greece” and called on his audience to invest in sectors such as renewable energy and waste management.

The minister made it clear that the new Greece bears no resemblance to what it had become in previous years, and, besides his GDP and primary surplus estimates, stated that the current account balance will also present a surplus for the first time after a number of decades, amounting to 1 percent of gross domestic product.

Stournaras then presented the six pillars of the new growth model for the Greek economy. They are tourism (with the aim of extending the season), energy (which contributes over 4 percentage points to the GDP), food and the agricultural sector, logistics (on the strength of the country’s geographical location), the top-quality human resources, and the high-potential sectors of telecommunications, new technologies, property and transport.

He added that synergies between Greek and German entrepreneurs can be developed in domains such as food and drinks, industrial products, pharmaceuticals, fuel and health tourism, with the businessmen asking him for details on the sectors expected to see growth in the future and whether the country will continue to post primary surpluses in the coming years.

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