R&D spending in decline
In Greece, budget allocation dropped 17 pct in 2023, while the EU average rose 5.3 pct
State spending on research and development declined in Greece in 2023, bucking European trends, Eurostat data gleaned from the member-states’ budgets and released Tuesday show.
When one considers spending per capita, Greece ranks quite low among EU states, although it outranks Lithuania, Poland, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.
“In 2023, the total government budget allocations for R&D across the EU stood at €123.684 billion, equivalent to 0.73% of GDP. This was a 5.3% increase compared with 2022 (€117.424 billion) and a 54.8% increase compared with 2013 (€79.886 million),” Eurostat noted.
In Greece’s case, research and development budget allocations declined about 17%, to €1.27 billion in 2023, from €1.53 billion in 2022. In terms of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), spending declined from 0.74% in 2022 to 0.58% in 2023.
This is the lowest sum spent on R&D since 2019. In the period from 2019-22, spending ranged from €1.28 billion in 2019 to €1.55 billion in 2021. Of course, 2013 numbers, the starting point for the Eurostat report, were abysmal in Greece, then in the throws of a big financial crisis: In that year, only €858.64 million was allocated to R&D, which means that the 2023 number, low as it is, is still 47.9% higher than 10 years previously.
Per capita spending on R&D dropped to €122.40 in 2023, with the EU average at €275.60, from €147 in 2022. In 2013, it was €78, or 0.48% of GDP.
It is notable that R&D per person spending in three non-EU European countries (Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) ranges from just under €700 (Switzerland) to over €900 (Norway).
Of the €1.27 billion allocated by the 2023 budget, €210.75 million was spent on R&D in industrial production and technology, €141.44 on health, €48.58 on telecommunications, transport and other infrastructure, €44.76 million on agriculture, €25.81 million on defense, €20.81 million on the environment, €8.2 million on energy and €7.26 million on education.
