By G. Sakkas
[email protected]
Investments of all types in Greece over 2016 fell to 13 percent of GDP, significantly down from the average of 24 percent recorded during the "boom years" of 2000 to 2008, according to results of a PWC report released this week.
The former figure, which bodes ill for efforts at economic recovering in the recession-battered country, translates into a loss of investment capital worth 100 billion euros over the ongoing crisis, which plagues the country since late 2009, if not earlier.
PWC said the evident "de-investment" in Greece negatively affected, as expected, the exports and mergers sector. Nevertheless, the latter sector in 2016 posted a significant increase from the previous year, although the development was chiefly based on banking sector moves. Mergers in Greece throughout 2016 were calculated in value at 4.4 billion euros, when the similar figure for 2008 reached 8.7 billion euros -- 293 billion throughout Europe at the time.
The study, entitled "Purchases and Mergers of Businesses in Greece for 2016", recorded 38 purchases and mergers last year, up from 29 in 2015, which were valued at 1.3 billion euros.
The five biggest transactions totaled 3.8 billion euros together in 2016.
