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Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Greece and its exports



Over the past months the Greece debt crisis has loomed large in global economic news.   In a recent newspaper article by David Charter entitled Papandreou looks on the sunny side of German bailouts , a plan to set up a huge solar power project called Helios is briefly outlined.  If it goes ahead Greece will be able to export solar energy to Northern Europe.   This does raise the question in my mind: What does Greece actually export?

Trade in services is obviously very important with Tourism heading that list.  Greece’s main products exports are food and beverages, petroleum products, chemicals and textiles.   Its principal export partners in 2010 were countries of the EU: Germany and Italy.

What does Greece export to New Zealand?   The main products imported into New Zealand from Greece were plastics products, vegetable preparation products, aluminium sheets and fresh grapes.   Greece is 64th in the country rankings for trade with New Zealand with a NZD$44 million trade surplus in New Zealand’s favour for the year ended June 2010.   Export of goods from Greece to New Zealand has been growing steadily from NZ$12 million in 2003 to NZ$20.5 million  in 2010. 

Information Sources:
Charter, D. (2011) Papandreou looks on the sunny side of German bailouts. Dominion Post 28 September, 2011 p.C5
Global New Zealand – International Trade, Investment, and Travel Profile 2010. Wellington: Statistics New Zealand.  Available in pdf format.
Statistics New Zealand Infoshare database.
World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gr.html

Photo from the Greek National Tourism Organisation.

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