Turning optimism into sustainable growth

It's official - the Athens Stock Exchange was the best performing equity market in Europe last year, reflecting international investors' newfound confidence in Greece's recovery. Across the board, foreign investors are putting their money in Greek assets from stocks and bonds to real estate and helping to drive foreign direct investment in Greece to record highs.

Compared with just a few years ago, when the country was in the grips of Europe's worst financial crisis, it's clear that in the eyes of foreigners Greece is back. The challenge now is to bring Greeks back.

During the crisis, an estimated half-a-million, mostly young, mostly well-educated Greeks left the country in search of better opportunities abroad. For Greece, the cost of that brain drain has been enormous. According to one estimate, Greeks abroad contributed more than 13 billion euros a year to the...

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