Bank of Greece

Greece saw a surge in tourist arrivals, reaching 32 million visitors from January to November 2023, according to data from the Bank of Greece released on Monday. 

The inbound travel movement surged by 17.3%, totaling 31.97 million travelers compared to 27.25 million in 2022. This surge resulted in a 15.4% rise in travel receipts, reaching €20.1 billion. 

Greece's return to investment grade in 2023 signals a return to normalcy and marks the start of a new effort to raise the prosperity level of the Greek people, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras said on Monday at a bank event.

The European Central Bank's Supervisory Board (SSM) Chair Claudia Buch acknowledged the progress made by the Greek banking sector during her two-day visit along with Single Resolution Board Chair Dominique Laboureix to Athens.

The chairs of the Single Resolution Board (SRB) Dominique Laboureix and the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank (SSM) Claudia Buch are in Athens on a two-day visit on Thursday and Friday.

The heads of the two European institutions met on Thursday with Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras and top executives of the BoG.

The Greek banking sector will see this and next year a credit expansion of 4% per annum, per Eurobank Equities, ensuring resilience in interest income and profitability for Greek banks.

This is ahead of the imminent reduction of interest rates by the ECB, expected to start from the second quarter of this year.

Banks and real estate market operators are predicting a mild decrease in home sales prices for 2024 since, as they estimate, the rally of the last two years is coming to an end.

With the real estate market due for a correction after significant price hikes, according to real estate experts and the Bank of Greece, there is a market segment, winter holiday homes, which never rebounded from the financial crisis.

A significant reduction in the debt ratio, the strengthening of economic resilience, and improvement in Greece's governance indicators are the three essential steps required for the country to fully normalize and regain an A credit rating, as it had before the debt crisis, thus aligning with the average credit rating of eurozone economies. This analysis comes from the Bank of Greece.

A record number of foreign visitors, in addition to receipts, will be recorded by Greek tourism for 2023, as expected, making this year a new year of reference for the sector, as both arrivals and receipts exceed the hitherto record figures of 2019.

The Bank of Greece has already detected the first signs of a slowdown in the housing market, which, as it notes in its Interim Monetary Policy report published on Wednesday, "potentially point to an imminent period of price correction, especially for property uses, features and locations of lower demand."