More and better FDI attracted

Greece is attracting more foreign direct investment, which is of better quality in the sense mainly of higher added value and, most importantly, with continuity, as several of the foreign companies located in this country are planning new investments next year. 

These are the main findings of the EY Attractiveness Survey Greece 2023, presented Tuesday by the managing director of EY Greece, Giorgos Papadimitriou, at the 6th InvestGR Forum, “Staying the Course.”

According to the EY European Investment Monitor, an extensive database processed by EY, in 2022 there were 47 foreign direct investments in Greece, compared to 30 in 2021. This figure ranks Greece – for the first time – in the top 20 among the 48 countries monitored by the survey and is by far the country’s best performance since 2000, when the survey began. 

Cumulatively, the investments of the last three years represent 35% of the total investments made in the last 23 years. However, as pointed out in the research, the FDI in Greece still represents only 0.79% of total investments in Europe. 

“It is clear that in order for Greece to secure its rightful place on the European investment map and fill the investment gap of the last two decades, the current rate of growth must be maintained and, ideally, intensified in the coming years,” EY stressed.

There is also a continued improvement in the qualitative composition of investments, with a greater spread across more activities and a significant proportion directed to knowledge-intensive activities with relatively high added value and to industries such as software and IT services, which can help change the economy’s productive model.

According to the EY survey, conducted with the participation of 250 executives of foreign companies all over the world, 40% of companies plan to invest or expand their activities in Greece in the next year. This percentage has been steadily increasing over the past three years, from 28% in 2020 to 34% in 2021 and 37% in 2022.