Greek exports break out of declining trend in 2005, with evenly spread rise
Greek exports climbed to an all-time high of 14 billion euros in 2005, according to projections by the Panhellenic Exporters Association (PSE). An especially encouraging development is that the rise was almost evenly spread among all markets that receive Greek products, except those of the former Yugoslavia. PSE bases its projections on the latest available figures for the January-October 2005 period. In those 10 months, exports were up 13 percent to 11,246 million euros, from 9,956 million for the same period a year earlier. At the same time, imports increased by only 2.3 percent to 35,767 million euros. Another encouraging development was the recovery of agricultural exports, which had been on a declining trend for some years. Greece’s old 14 European Union partners remain strong clients, having absorbed 5,162 million euros’ worth of exports in the 10-month period, with a rise of 8.6 percent. Exports to each individual country are projected to exceed 100 million euros in 2005, except for those to Luxembourg, Ireland and, perhaps, Finland. Greece’s five best customer countries are Germany, with 1,397 million euros; Italy, with 1,152 million; the UK, with 786.6 million; France, with 489 million; and Spain, with 401 million euros. Exports to the 25-member EU totaled 6,001 million euros, up 9.1 percent. Those to the 10 new members reached 839 million, against 754 million a year earlier, with Cyprus accounting for the lion’s share of 567 million euros. Imports from the enlargement countries also rose to the level of exports, totaling 834 million euros. Among the fellow member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), exports continued strongly rising to Turkey (29 percent) and the USA (10.1 percent), to which they are projected to exceed 700 million euros in both cases for the whole of 2005. The strongest rise in Greek exports was to the Middle East and North Africa region (33.3 percent). Exports more than doubled to Syria (124 million euros) and the United Arab Emirates (177 million). Exports to the constituent members of the former USSR were up 4.8 percent, but those to the countries of the former Yugoslavia fell sharply, mainly due a 56.7 percent decline for Serbia-Montenegro. There were significant increases to the value of the rather limited exports to SE Asia (57.9 percent) and Latin America (35.8 percent). To the rest of the world, they more than doubled (106.1 percent). PSE argues that this latter figure shows an improvement of the dispersion of exports among the smaller countries on all continents. Finally, exports to China and India reached 26.9 million and 65.5 million euros respectively (increases of 49.9 and 46.2 percent). Industrial products outstripped other exports, with a 7.3 percent increase to 7,052 million products, or 62.7 percent of the total. Farm product exports rose 24 percent to 2,348 million euros, with improvements in all three main categories: foodstuffs and live animals (15.8 percent), beverages and tobacco (17.6 percent) and oils and fats (144.8 percent). Farm products accounted for 20.9 percent of all exports. According to other PSE figures, Greece’s main competitors as regards industrial exports to the rest of the EU are Turkey and Germany, and as regards farm exports, Spain and Italy.
