Investments in Greek stock market increased in 2012 in spite of the debt crisis and fears of Greece’s exit from the eurozone, The Wall Street Journal said, citing the Athens Stock Exchange.
In the second half of 2012 private investments in shares of Greek companies rose to 109 billion euros. To compare, in the first six months of the past year investments totaling 27.6 billion euros were made in Greek securities.
Due to the increase in foreign investments the ATHEX leading stock index rose by 33.4 percent, posting the highest growth in the European Union. From the beginning of the current year, the index has also advanced by 10.51 percent to 1,000.3.
At the same time, the Greece’s stock index is much lower now than its record highs reached in 2011. At that time Athex composite was traded at 6,350 but collapsed because of the growing debt crisis.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, the government of Greece has to reduce state funding in 2013 in order to keep to its austerity-led recovery plan. In January authorities planned to invest 200 million euros, but actually 67 million euros were spent.
The reason why officials cut their investment in the first month of the current year is the decline in government revenues. Thus, VAT receipts fell 11 percent to 4.42 billion euros. Gross tax revenues decreased by 241 million euros.
The eurozone debt crisis emerged in Greece. Despite several bailout loans from the IMF, Greece has not succeeded in resolving such problems as high unemployment, public debt and budget deficit.
