Alpha Bank: The Greek economy was particularly resistant in 2023

In 2023 , according to its economic analysis , it demonstrated particular resilience by addressing the adverse external environment, both in terms of strengthening economic activity and creating new jobs. In particular, as indicated in Alpha Bank’s analysis, Gross Value Added (GDP) for all sectors of the Greek economy increased by 1.2%, employment by 1.3% (or 53.1 mm), while registrations of new businesses last year were more than 2022 by 6.1%. In addition, the turnover of Greek companies (in nominal terms) increased in the majority of the sectors of economic activity, although generally milder than in 2022, due to the de-escalation of the general level of prices. The contribution of the branches of the Greek economy to the above developments was of different intensity. In particular, the APA of the construction industry was set at €3.9 billion (fixed prices 2015) in 2023, increasing by 14% over 2022. Their contribution to the overall rise of the APA, however, was set at 0.3 percentage points (e.g.), as they are only 2.3% of it. The rise in construction is also reflected in the increase in employment, with the creation of 17 thousand new jobs. At the same time, this industry recorded an increase in turnover by 16.7% and in the number of new firms registered by 16.1%. The dynamics of the construction industry are also reflected in three more short-term conjuncture indicators. Firstly, the production index in construction increased by 12.8% on an annual basis last year, while the production of building projects – which correspond primarily to private construction – and the production of civil engineering projects – involving public construction – increased by 13.1% and 12.6% respectively. Secondly, in 2023 a dynamic increase in investment in construction was recorded, both housing by 20.7% and other structures by 10%. Thirdly, private building activity (in terms of volume, m3), which in 2023 increased by 15.9% compared to 2022. The wider sector of tourism, wholesale and retail trade and transport, which is about 1⁄4 of the total APA, has made a marginally positive contribution to its rise of 0,1 a.m. In terms of employment, however, transport and tourism increased significantly by 20.1 thousand and 5.3 thousand jobs respectively, while in wholesale and retail trade a reduction of 22.5 thousand was recorded. In addition, growth recorded both turnover – followed by historical high performance in terms of tourist receipts and incoming travel traffic of last year – as well as registrations of new businesses in the tourism sector (by 9.9% and 9.4%), wholesale and retail trade (by 1.2% and 9.8%) and transport (by 5% and 16.1%). In addition, the two broad sectors including professional, scientific and technical activities and administrative and supporting activities contributed together around 1/3 to the rise of the APA last year (0.4 a.m.). Their contribution to employment was positive, with workers in both sectors increased by 3.5 thousand and 3.2 thousand persons respectively, while turnover increased by 11% for professional, scientific and technical activities and 15.3% for administrative and supporting activities. Finally, it was notable that the registrations of new companies in the two branches were rising, especially in the second category where an increase of 18.3% was recorded. As regards the enlarged sector involving public administration and defence, education, and health, its contribution to the increase in the APA was marginally positive and equal to 0.1 a.m. It is worth mentioning, however, that both education and health recorded, in 2023, a significant increase in turnover (by 23.5% and 10.2%), but also in the registration of new enterprises (by 3.1% and 6.6%), with employees increasing by 21.3 thousand in the health sector but decreasing by 14.5 thousand in education. In addition, the industry including arts, entertainment and entertainment, as well as other activities in the tertiary sector contributed 0.3 a.m. to the increase in the APA. Turnover increased by 15.8% in arts, entertainment and entertainment and by 8.4% in other tertiary sector activities, enrollments of new businesses increased by 19.7% and 31.8%, respectively, while employees increased by 2.4 thousand in other activities, but declined by 11.5 thousand in arts, entertainment and entertainment. Finally, although industry and the primary sector had a zero and marginal negative contribution, respectively, to the change in the APP in 2023, employment in these two categories increased significantly The agriculture-forestry-fishing industry recorded the second largest increase after health in 2023, creating 20.5 thousand additional jobs and industry employees increased overall by 7.4 thousand people. In terms of turnover, the primary sector rose slightly, while in industry a fall was recorded, likely linked to the deescalation of energy prices last year. Typically it is noted that the turnover of the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning industry decreased by 45% last year. At the same time, the start of new businesses was less than in 2022, both in the primary sector and in industry. Source: RES – ICM