ECONOMY

Greece a laggard in digital economy

Greece a laggard in digital economy

Greece is second to last among the European Union’s 28 members in terms of progress toward a digital economy and society, slipping another place this year according to the European Commission’s Digital Economy & Society Index (DESI).

This country has dropped to 27th place, as it is now behind Bulgaria, too, and only ahead of Romania, while a review of the 2017 data led to Greece being relegated to 27th last year as well.

Greece dropped places in most indicators that compose the DESI index, such as Integration of Digital Technology and Digital Public Services, even though Greece improved its score in absolute figures; other countries overtook it as they have shown greater progress in the last year.

“In total over the last few years Greece has not recorded major progress in comparison with other EU member-states. In the last year [Greece’s] progress has been somewhat slower than the EU average,” the Commission said in a note that is not very flattering for the government in Athens.

The DESI report pointed out that Greece is late in transitioning to rapid broadband connections, but that there has at least been an increase in mobile broadband services and 4G coverage.

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