The number of tourists who visited Greece in the seven months January – July 2021 amounted to 4,540 million, recording an increase of 51.4% compared to the same period last year, according to data released today by the Bank of Greece on the Balance of Payments .
However, the incoming tourist traffic amounted to 30% of that of the corresponding seven months of 2019, when the number of tourists had exceeded 15.080 million.
In July, the incoming tourist traffic, always according to the BoG data, showed an increase of 240% compared to July 2020, with the result that the number of tourists who visited our country reached 2,815,000, a level that corresponds to about 50 % of the incoming tourist traffic in July 2015. The revenues of July, according to the data of the BoG, amounted to 61.4% of those of July 2019.
In the seven months, however, the current account deficit decreased by 889 million euros compared to the corresponding period of 2020 and amounted to 7.0 billion euros.
The increase in the goods deficit is due to the larger increase in imports compared to exports in absolute terms. More specifically, exports increased by 29.6% and 13.9% at current and fixed prices respectively and imports increased by 25.4% at current prices and 7.9% at constant prices.
In particular, exports and imports of non-fuel goods increased at approximately the same rate, ie by 23.7% and 23.4%, respectively, at current prices, while at constant prices they increased by 19.6% and 22.1% respectively.
The increase in the services surplus is primarily due to the improvement in the travel services balance, but also, to a lesser extent, to the other services balance, which, however, was partially offset by the reduction in the transport surplus. Arrivals of non-resident travelers increased by 51.4%, while related receipts increased by 139.7% compared to the same period in 2020, representing 37.1% of receipts in 2019.
In the Balance of Financial Transactions in the category of direct investments, residents’ receivables from abroad increased by 726 million euros and residents’ liabilities to foreigners, corresponding to non-residents’ direct investments in Greece, increased by 2.8 billion . euro.
In portfolio investments, the increase in residents ‘receivables from abroad is mainly due to the 14.5 billion euro increase in residents’ investments in bonds and bonds abroad. The increase in their liabilities is due to the increase by 1.3 billion euros of non-resident placements in shares of Greek companies and by 938 million euros in non-resident placements in bonds and interest-bearing bills of the Greek State.
SOURCE: AMNA
