Economy of Greece

Greece has an advanced, high-income economy. It is the 50th-largest in the world, with an annual nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $267.3 billion. In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), Greece is the world's 54th-largest economy, at $467.590 billion in annual output. It is the 16th-largest economy in the European Union and eleventh largest in the eurozone. According to the International Monetary Fund's figures for 2025, Greece's GDP per capita is $25,756 at nominal value and $45,048 at purchasing power parity. Greece is a welfare state and ranks relatively highly among OECD nations in terms of social spending, which stood at 23.7% of GDP in 2024.

It is a developed country, with an economy based on the service (80%) and industrial sectors (16%), and the agricultural sector contributing an estimated 4% of national economic output in 2017. Important Greek industries include tourism and shipping. With 31.3 million international tourists in 2019, Greece was the 7th-most-visited country in the European Union and 13th in the world, marking a steady increase from 18 million tourists in 2013. The Greek Merchant Navy is the largest in the world, with Greek-owned vessels accounting for 21% of global deadweight tonnage as of 2021; the total capacity of the Greek-owned fleet has increased by 45.8% compared to 2014. The increased demand for international maritime transportation between Greece and Asia has resulted in unprecedented investment in the shipping industry.

The country is a significant agricultural producer within the EU. Greece has the largest economy in Southeast Europe and is an important regional investor. Greece was the largest foreign investor in Albania in 2013, the third in Bulgaria, in the top-three in Romania and Serbia and the most important trading partner and largest foreign investor in North Macedonia. The Greek telecommunications company OTE has made significant public investment across Southeast Europe.

Greece was a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). The country joined what is now the European Union in 1981. In 2001 Greece adopted the euro as its currency, replacing the Greek drachma at an exchange rate of 340.75 drachmae per euro. Greece is a member of the International Monetary Fund and of the World Trade Organization, and ranked 34th on Ernst & Young's Globalization Index 2011.

World War II (1939–1945) devastated the country's economy, but the high levels of economic growth that followed from 1950 to 1980 have been called the Greek economic miracle. From 2000 Greece saw high levels of GDP growth above the Eurozone average, peaking at 5.8% in 2003, 5.4% in 2004 and 6.4% in 2006. The subsequent Great Recession and Greek government-debt crisis, a central focus of the wider euro area crisis, plunged the economy into a sharp downturn, with real GDP growth rates of −4.1% in 2009, −5.7% in 2010, −9.9% in 2011, −8.3% in 2012 and −2.3% in 2013. In 2011, the country's government debt reached €356 billion (172% of nominal GDP). After negotiating the biggest debt restructuring in history with the private sector, which sustained losses in the order of €100 billion for private bond investors, Greece reduced its sovereign debt burden to €280 billion (137% of GDP) in the first quarter of 2012. Greece achieved a real GDP growth rate of 0.8% in 2014—after five consecutive years of economic decline—but the economy contracted by 0.2% in 2015 and recorded zero growth in 2016. The country returned to modest growth rates of 1.5% in 2017, 2.1% in 2018 and 2.3% in 2019. GDP contracted by 9.2% in 2020 during the global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the economy rebounded by 8.7% in 2021, 5.7% in 2022, 2.3% in 2023 and 2.3% in 2024. On 20 August 2022, Greece formally exited the EU's "enhanced surveillance framework", which had been in place since the conclusion of the third bailout programme exactly four years earlier. On 2 December 2022, Berlin-based credit rating agency Scope assigned a positive outlook to Greece's BB+ rating, presaging the country's return to investment grade. On 31 July 2023, Greece's investment-grade status was restored by Japanese credit rating agency R&I. Scope, DBRS, S&P and Fitch followed suit on 4 August, 8 September, 20 October and 1 December 2023 respectively, but Moody's delayed doing so until 14 March 2025. The Economist ranked Greece the world's top economic performer for 2022 and 2023, citing significant improvements in five key economic and financial indicators. Tourism reached an all-time record in 2023, with approximately 32 million tourists making Greece one of the most visited countries in the world.