Economy of Greece

The economy of Greece is the 34th or 42nd largest in the world at $299 or $304 billion by nominal gross domestic product or purchasing power parity respectively, according to World Bank statistics for the year 2011. Additionally, Greece is the 15th largest economy in the 27-member European Union. In terms of per capita income, Greece is ranked 29th or 33rd in the world at $27,875 and $27,624 for nominal GDP and purchasing power parity respectively.

A developed country, the economy of Greece mainly revolves around the service sector (85.0%) and industry (12.0%), while agriculture makes up 3.0% of the national economic output. Important Greek industries include tourism (with 14.9 million international tourists in 2009, it is ranked as the 7th most visited country in the European Union and 16th in the world by the United Nations World Tourism Organization) and merchant shipping (at 16.2% of the world's total capacity, the Greek merchant marine is the largest in the world), while the country is also a considerable agricultural producer (including fisheries) within the union. As the largest economy in the Balkans, Greece is also an important regional investor.

The Greek economy is classified as an advanced and high-income one, and Greece was a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). In 1979 the accession of the country in the European Communities and the single market was signed, and the process was completed in 1982. In January 2001 Greece adopted the Euro as its currency, replacing the Greek drachma at an exchange rate of 340.75 drachma to the Euro. Greece is also a member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, and is ranked 31st on the KOF Globalization Index for 2010 and 34th on the Ernst & Young’s Globalization Index 2011.

The country's economy was devastated by the Second World War, and the high levels of economic growth that followed throughout the 1950s to 1970s are dubbed the Greek economic miracle. Since the turn of the millennium, Greece saw high levels of GDP growth above the Eurozone average peaking at 5.9% in 2003 and 5.5% in 2006. Due to the late-2000s financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis, the Greek economy saw growth rates of −7.1% in 2011, −4.9% in 2010, −3.1% in 2009 and −0.2% in 2008. In 2011, the country's public debt stood at €355.658 billion (170.6% of nominal GDP). After negotiating the biggest debt restructuring in history with the private sector, Greece reduced its sovereign debt burden to €280 billion (136.9% of GDP) in the first quarter of 2012.