Investment boost to GDP
Over 370 plans have been approved for financing through the Recovery and Resilience Fund
The government is banking on investments to maintain this year’s growth momentum and avoid the recession that is looming over Europe, and in this context it is trying to speed up the projects of the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
On Friday it is expected to announce the submission of the second disbursement request to Brussels, having met the milestones and targets set. Greece will be the third country, after Spain and Italy, to submit a second disbursement request, according to government sources.
So far Greece has collected 7.5 billion euros – i.e. 25% – of the €30.5 billion of the Recovery Fund (€17.8 billion in grants and €12.7 billion in loans). Of this, €4 billion comprises grants and €3.5 billion loans. Grants worth €1.65 billion have already been absorbed, while €1.67 billion in loans was directed to the banks for issuing credit and another €1 billion was activated for InvestEU and Equity.
Meanwhile, the approved projects have reached a total of €13.5 billion (out of a total of €17.8 billion in grants) after the inclusion on Wednesday of another list of 142 projects, with a total budget of €3.28 billion, following decisions by Alternate Finance Minister Thodoros Skylakakis. In total, 372 projects have been included.
The Finance Ministry acknowledges that the difficulties in absorbing and utilizing the fund’s resources are great and increasing over time, as the prerequisites will increasingly concern the completion of tenders and projects and less the passing of reforms, which were dominant at the beginning. All prerequisites must be completed by end-August 2026.
As for foreign direct investments, Minister Christos Staikouras spoke at the 9th Strategic Conference “Investments in Greece and Development Prospects” of a new historic high predicted this year. FDI reached €5 billion in 2021, the highest performance in the last 20 years, while by July this year it exceeded €4 billion. At the same time Greek exports have doubled as a percentage of GDP since 2010, reaching 41% of GDP in 2021, Staikouras said.
