Greece - Economic sectors

Greece is not a fully capitalist state as there are still many state-owned industries, but the government plans to sell many of them. Greece receives a great amount of financial assistance from the European Union, which accounts for about 4 percent of its GDP. Greece's main

Communications
Country	Newspapers	Radios	TV Sets a	Cable subscribers a	Mobile Phones a	Fax Machines a	Personal Computers a	Internet Hosts b	Internet Users b
	1996	1997	1998	1998	1998	1998	1998	1999	1999
Greece	153	477	466	1.2	194	3.8	51.9	59.57	750
United States	215	2,146	847	244.3	256	78.4	458.6	1,508.77	74,100
Germany	311	948	580	214.5	170	73.1	304.7	173.96	14,400
Italy	104	878	486	2.8	355	31.3	173.4	68.28	7,000
a Data are from International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Development Report 1999 and are per 1,000 people.
b Data are from the Internet Software Consortium ( http://www.isc.org ) and are per 10,000 people.
SOURCE: World Bank. World Development Indicators 2000.

imports are industrial and capital goods , foodstuffs, and petroleum, and it exports manufactured goods, food and beverages, petroleum products, cement, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

Greece's chief sector of the economy—services—is comprised of transportation, tourism, communications, trade, banking, public administration, and defense. The service sector is the fastest-growing and largest part of the Greek economy, accounting for 64.4 percent of GDP in 1998. Tourism is the foundation of this sector. However, a poorly developed infrastructure has slowed its expansion. In 1996, more than 10 million tourists visited

Greece, yet the tourist industry still faced declining revenues due in part to the drachma's weak performance. Tourism revenues exceeded US$5.2 billion in 1998, an upsurge due in part to political problems in neighboring Balkan countries and an economic recovery in the European Union.

The industrial sector accounts for 27.3 percent of Greece's GDP. One of the fastest growing and most profitable industries in this sector is the food industry, which has excellent export potential. High technology equipment production, especially for telecommunications, is also a fast-growing sector. Textiles, building materials, machinery, transport equipment, and electrical appliances are also a significant part of the manufacturing sector. Shipping is another industry that has shown economic promise. A nation with a great nautical tradition, Greece has built an impressive shipping industry based on its prime geographic location and the entrepreneurial skills of its owners.