Greece: Arrivals fell 65% in Jan-May

May posted a staggering 413.7% annual increase in tourism arrivals and a 286.2% rise in tourism revenues, according to the Bank of Greece, but this was not enough to offset the drop in traffic in the first five months of the year.

In the January-May period arrivals fell 65.5% from the same time in 2020, given that there were no travel restrictions in the first 10 weeks of last year. Tourism revenues also posted a 51.2% annual decline in the year to end-May.

This has contributed to the widening of the current account deficit by 534 million euros year-on-year, reaching €6.2 billion.

Exports recorded a 27.8% rise in current prices and 15.5% in fixed prices, while imports grew 20.1% and 5.1% respectively. Exports and imports of goods (not including fuel) grew by about the sale rate (21.5%) in current price terms, while in fixed prices the increase amounted to 18.8% and 20.8% respectively.

The reduction of the service surplus is not only because of the transport balance deterioration, but also due to the travel service balance, while the balance of other types of services posted an improvement.

The overall deficit of current accounts and capital (that corresponds to the needs of the economy for funding from abroad) grew €705 million to €5.7 billion.

Source: ekathimerini.com