Exports post new growth, thanks to emerging markets
The rise in Greek exports continued last year, with their value increasing from -14,050 million in 2005 to -16,652 million in 2006, growth of 18.5 percent, according to the Panhellenic Exporters’ Association (PSE). However, the latest PSE analysis shows a remarkable change among the most important exporting markets for Greece. Germany, which throughout the postwar period has remained at the top of the list, nearly lost its first place as exports to Italy in 2005 grew by 26 percent, while those to Germany increased by just 7 percent. Turkey rose to the sixth spot from 11th in 2005, while the USA fell to eighth position after spending all of the 1990s in fourth spot. Slovenia, now an EU member, shot up from the 50th to the 19th position among exporting markets, with exports of -201 million. Generally, exports increased toward all geographical regions, except for low exports to Africa (0.6 percent of the total) and to Southeast Asia (1.3 percent). Exports to North American countries remained stable. The most impressive growth is to the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004, which soared from -1,070.3 million to -1,521.6 million year-on-year, a 42.2 percent rise. Consequently, these markets now account for 9.1 percent of Greek exports. The prospect of EU entry also boosted exports to Bulgaria and Romania in 2006, just before the two countries joined the bloc: Exports to Bulgaria grew by 28.8 percent, to -1,052.5 million, and those to Romania by 45.7 percent, to -596 million. Exports to emerging markets grew by 22.5 percent. Slovenia posted a leading rise of 431.1 percent, followed by Algeria (342.6 percent), Croatia (140 percent), Israel (115.3 percent) and Russia (60 percent), although in most cases this concerns exports of raw materials and fuel. The export of raw materials may have grown by 53.5 percent, but still cover a small percentage of overall export value (6.4 percent), while fuel grew by 64.1 percent, accounting for 13 percent of all exports (-2,148.5 million). Other major categories of exports recorded some growth but remained below the average rate: Industrial products grew by 11.6 percent, shrinking to 57.9 percent of the total, and farming products increased by 9.6 percent, falling from 21.6 percent in 2005 to 20 percent last year.
