The major impact of the maritime shipping sector in Greece's recovering economy was again confirmed this week, with figures compiled by the shipping and island policy ministry showing that total remittances of Greece-based companies in 2017 neared three billion USD.
The figure for 2017 - which only refers to remittances declared by shipping firms based in Greece, and not all sector-related revenues - was up by 6 percent over 2016's numbers, in fact.
Nearly 14,200 people in the recession-battered country work in shipping companies' land operations, while the total outlay for managed vessels was up in 2017 by 8 percent, to reach 1.78 billion USD.
The ministry reported that 1,387 shipping related companies operated in Greece in 2017, managing 4,353 vessels, up 4 percent from 2016.
In a related development, a study by Oxford Economics noted that for every one million euros contributed by the shipping sector the EU GDP, another 1.6 million euros in added value is created.
