Shipping to contribute more than 15 billion euros in the Hellenic economy in 2007

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

29 Dec 2007

More than 15 billion euros are expected to pour into Hellas from shipping activities during 2007, a sum which - if confirmed - will be a new record. Already, according to preliminary data from the Central Bank of Greece for the first ten months of the year, shipping has contributed 13.7 billion euros to the country's current account balance, an increase of 1.84 billion euros, against the same period of 2006, when the total amount stood at 11.9 billion euros. For October only, a total of 1.61 billion euros poured into the country's account balance, versus 1.23 billion euros in the same month of last year.  For the whole of 2006, shipping's contribution in Hellas' current account balance stood at 14.3 billion euros, versus 13.87 billion euros in 2005, an increase of 453 million euros. According to official figures, the amount of 15 billion euros which is expected to be contributed by shipping this year, is corresponding to about 8% of the country's GDP. Hellenic owned fleet is managed by a total of 1,200 shipping companies, which are employing more than 11,500 people, most of which are Greeks and highly payed individuals. The total cluster of shipping-related activities in Hellas contributes around 160,000 to 200,000 jobs, which is about 4%-4.5% of the total employment in the local economy.