Greece is the world champion to support the state

Greece is the world champion in supporting its economy, ING said in a new report, thanks in part to an influx of resources from the European Union’s Next Generation Fund.

In addition to the various support measures taken by the Greek government and the resources earmarked for the flow into the Greek economy from Brussels, the Netherlands-based multinational firm calculates the total package that the Greek state will have to tackle to deal firmly with the consequences of the pandemic. It amounts to 32.1% of the GDP. The country’s GDP – the highest in the world, even surpasses the United States.

ING examined the additional financial expenditures countries have made or promised in response to Covid-19, bringing the US up to 25.5% of GDP. This includes the approved US recovery plan proposal, but not the new proposals of President Joe Biden that have not yet been approved by Congress. For the Eurozone, this rate reaches 12.4% after adding the Recovery and Resilience Facility to the national budget spending against the pandemic. In fact, this percentage can be overestimated as some projects may be counted twice as planned at the national and European level.

Italy ranks third in the world, after Greece and the United States, with 21.9% of GDP.

ING confirms that the positive impact on the Greek economy is likely to be less as part of the Greek proposal for NGEU loans earmarked for partial financing of private investment. It also highlights that the support already agreed upon from the United States has a far greater impact than the Italian and Greek plans.

The Dutch company continues to say that the Greek plan is very balanced, as is Portugal’s, because it contains many projects in addition to green and digital transitions. The report notes that Greece places great emphasis on human resource-related investments, with skills and employment being two of the main sectors in which the country has lagged behind since the global financial crisis.

Overall, ING notes that while the goal of NGGE is to help EU countries recover from the crisis, the demand for these resources remains low.