Improving competitiveness is the biggest challenge facing the Greek economy, according to Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras, who asked the mainstream political parties to show consensus.

As he said during his award ceremony in New York by Capital Link, Greece, despite being a success story, still lags behind most European countries in terms of structural competitiveness, despite the significant improvement in recent years. For example, according to the Swiss IMD's Global Competitiveness Index for 2024, Ireland ranks 4th, Portugal 36th and Greece 47th. A similar picture emerges when looking at the World Bank's data, which constructs six global governance indicators for more than 200 countries for the period 1996-2022. Greece lags behind Portugal and Ireland for the whole period and in each individual indicator, notes Athens News Agency. 

This significant lag is responsible for the large deficit in the country's current account balance, which is equivalent to 6.2% of GDP in 2023.

In order to reverse this picture, Stournaras said, a wide range of ambitious reforms aimed at improving structural competitiveness need to be implemented. These reforms should aim to address structural weaknesses such as delays in the administration of justice, bureaucracy in public administration, and the digital skills deficit. At the same time, however, it is necessary to eliminate remaining restrictive practices that hinder the competitive functioning of markets by removing barriers to entry and opening up markets for goods and services to competition.

According to the governor, broader political consensus is needed to move forward with the necessary reforms. Conversely, adhering to ideological approaches hinders the implementation of proven solutions in areas like tax evasion, combating lawlessness and impunity, deviating from European educational standards, and causing delays in the administration of justice.