Obstacles to investment
The illegal economy, political uncertainty, high energy costs, the inefficiency of the state and corruption are the five main obstacles to the development of business activity in Greece. The underground economy is considered the biggest problem of the lot by almost half of the enterprises surveyed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The survey – presented this week by EBRD officials at the Bank of Greece – sampled 323 enterprises from March to August 2016 and indicated that the Greek economy’s main problem from the respondents’ point of view is the conditions of unfair competition resulting from the operation of tax-evading businesses.
Another significant obstacle is the high political uncertainty, which does not allow for healthy business activity. After energy costs and the inefficiency of state agencies, problems which mainly affect large companies, the list of obstacles also includes corruption, telecommunications and difficulty in obtaining financing.
Similar conclusions were drawn in the Grant Thornton’s International Business Report, which found that the biggest obstacle to the recovery of Greek enterprises is economic uncertainty (for 84 percent of respondents). Other major obstacles identified were the lack of funding and bureaucracy. Profit expectations remain low, with only 24 percent of companies expecting to post a profit this year.