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strengthening competitiveness by facilitating the expansion of the private sector
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supporting sustainable energy and infrastructure, including through further regional linkages
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further enhancing the resilience of the financial sector.
The EBRD initially began investing in Greece on a temporary basis in response to a request from the Greek authorities to support reforms and a return to economic growth. Originally, the EBRD’s shareholders voted for the Bank to invest in Greece until the end of 2020.
In December 2018 our shareholders agreed to extend the Bank's mandate in the country until 2025.
Our investments – backed by donor-funded technical assistance and policy dialogue -are intended to strengthen progress in the reform of Greece’s economy and contribute to its recovery. The EBRD deploys its experience and expertise in attracting and encouraging foreign and domestic investment, strengthening the role of the private sector and deepening regional integration.
Specifically, we aim to support private companies that have strong export potential and sound business models through direct and indirect finance, with a particular focus on facilitating cross border transactions, enhancing value chain linkages and promoting strategic consolidation to help accelerate the companies’ recovery.
The EBRD will also engage, where possible, in expanding the private sector’s role in infrastructure and energy. Greece is a natural trade and investment partner for many countries in south-eastern Europe where the EBRD has a strong presence. The Bank will support investments and policy measures which are conducive to integration.
Greece is a founding member of the EBRD and to date Greek companies and banks have invested €2.3 billion in the EBRD’s existing countries of operations, with a focus on south-eastern Europe. Under the Vienna Initiative, the EBRD supported the subsidiaries of Greek banks in the region at the height of the global financial crisis.
The Government of Greece requested that the country be granted recipient country status at the EBRD in a letter dated 25 November 2014, which said EBRD engagement would ”provide value added in tackling the consequences of the financial and economic crisis and addressing the structural challenges in the Greek economy that it exposed”.
The request was reconfirmed by the new Government on 2 February 2015.
As well as being a country where the EBRD invests, Greece is also an EBRD donor, having contributed €525 million in donor funds. Greece established a bilateral technical cooperation fund with the EBRD in 1995, replenished over time, which is actively supporting EBRD investments. Greece has also contributed €500,000 to the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF). In 2020, Greece contributed €20 million in respect to the Greek PPP Preparation Facility Cooperation Account. In 2021, Greece channelled €500m in concessional loans from its EU Rapid Recovery Facility contribution through the EU-EBRD Greece RRF 2.
The EBRD’s Greece strategy was adopted on 21 October 2020
Current EBRD forecast for Greece Real GDP Growth in 2023: 2.4%
Current EBRD forecast for Greece Real GDP Growth in 2024: 2.3%
The economic performance of Greece has remained robust in 2023, albeit well below the high growth rates of the previous two years. GDP rose by 2.0 per cent year on year in the first quarter, boosted by strong export growth as well as rising private consumption and investment.
Provisional data for the second quarter show a GDP rise of 2.7 per cent year on year. The country is also on track for a record tourism season in 2023.
