Local SMEs are still suffering
Small and medium-sized enterprises have not recovered from multiple crises and problems
Greek small and medium-sized enterprises have not yet managed to make up for the losses from the successive crises over the period from 2009 onward, on top of the structural problems they had before 2008.
Their focus mainly on food services and accommodation, sectors particularly vulnerable to crises as demonstrated during the recent pandemic, and not on sectors with a more sustainable growth perspective, such as manufacturing, and the low degree of export-minded character and digitization are some of the main causes. Besides the above disadvantages, they also suffer from the limited access to bank financing, as a result of the financial crisis.
The European Commission’s remark about the low dynamism of Greek businesses in its latest report on the performance of SMEs in the EU-27 is anything but accidental. In fact, the Commission links this feature to how often businesses open and close down in Greece, mainly in the food service and accommodation sectors, businesses that are often short-lived, opportunistic and driven by necessity. It should be noted that many small and medium-sized retail businesses also have such characteristics.
The report showed that in Greece they increased their added value by 7.6% in 2022 compared to 2020. A performance that seems high, but which, as the Commission reports, is actually much lower, as the above increase is nominal – i.e. the effect of high inflation has not been taken into account. It is noted that only seven EU states achieved a real increase in the value added of SMEs in 2022, even after adjusting for inflation.
Employment in Greek SMEs increased in 2022 compared to 2020 by 5.1%, while the number of businesses increased by 3.6%.
The deep dependence of Greek entrepreneurship (especially SMEs) on the service sector is reflected in the Commission’s data, as 52.4% of Greek SMEs (compared to 51.3% in the EU) are active in the service sector, 28.8% in trade, wholesale and retail (against 23.6% in the EU), 8.7% in construction (15.4% in the EU) and 8.5% in the manufacturing sector, the same percentage as in the EU.
