by Efthimios Bakogiannis, Secretary General for Regional Planning and Urban Environment One of the key roles of spatial planning is to support developmental choices through spatial receptors and settings. It becomes self-evident that, first, the lack of consistent long-term spatial planning rules makes it difficult to implement various development options (in some cases the [...]
“Spatial planning: Time to deliver”: The March/April 2021 issue of Greek Business File (GBF) is dedicated to a key instrument of a country’s development and investment. Greece is a rare example of a European country that lacks a comprehensive and effective spatial planning system. GBF looks into the 2020 "Modernization of urban and spatial planning legislation". [...]
by Symela Touchtidou, @stouchtidou Undoubtedly, tourism is one of the sectors hardest hit by the global pandemic crisis. There is one sector, though, that has showed remarkable resilience to the pandemic crisis and is expected to boom when restrictions are lifted. The holiday home market. Why? As many tourism experts note, traveler preferences and behaviors have [...]
As Greek systemic banks remain trapped in overwhelming non performing loan levels, non-systemic banks are rushing to make up lost ground promising more generous lending for Greek businesses. In 2020, Greek financial institutions granted over €20 billion in loans to households and businesses – a record lending level in the country for the last decade. A [...]
by Dika Agapitidou, Director, JLL – Athens Economics ltd* It is common to see savings surge and consumption decline in times of acute uncertainty; therefore, it comes as no surprise that the pandemic outbreak, swiftly followed by restrictions on circulation and market activity, undermined the performance of both retail and food & beverage. In turn, [...]
by Symela Touchtidou @stouchtidou One could call it a Herculean labor. Ιt would not be an exaggeration. Among the priorities set in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, component 3.3 is titled “Improve resilience, accessibility and sustainability of healthcare”. Reforms in selected areas of the healthcare system will seek to provide “equal access to high [...]
In the first year of its operation, the "Hercules" scheme, with the participation of all 4 systemic banks of Greece, reduced NPLs by 32 billion euros, ie by about 40% of the total. Within 13 months, “Hercules” achieved what had not been done in the previous five years. These data were presented by George Zavvos, [...]
A report from the Centre for the Study of Democracy, a Sofia-based thinktank, suggests that Moscow’s “malign” influence on strategic decision-making in southeast Europe remains strong, even though Russian economic power has weakened in recent years with the gradual opening up of the region’s energy markets. Russia continues to disrupt economic policymaking and promote divisive [...]
Yannis Stournaras, Governor of Bank of Greece, argues that the pandemic shock has incurred significant costs but has also had benefits for the Greek economy. At the EU level, he argues the Recovery and Resilience Facility is the first, albeit small, step towards a more federal fiscal policy in Europe and asks for further initiatives [...]
Investment and reform are the main ingredients of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) of Greece. The country is entitled to €32 billion in grants and cheap loans. Investments to cover the investment, output and employment gap in Greece. Reforms to make sure that this time the money flowing in the country will be [...]
