It’s got to be one of the best success stories to come out of Greece in a very long time showcasing the improvements happening in the Greek economy. It’s not a story that captures the popular imagination – some of the elements are technical – but it’s a very important one.

An Economist Intelligence Unit report places Greece first among countries in its ‘Change in Business Environment Rankings’.

Specifically, Greece has improved by 16 slots and is trending higher.

The report measures improvement/deterioration of countries’ business environment from the last quarter of 2019 to the last quarter of 2022.

“The biggest improvements over the past three years,” the report says, since before the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, are in the business environments of Greece, Qatar, the U.S. and the UAE. Singapore remains the best place in the world to do business for the next five years. Canada and the U.S. are ranked second and third.

This is some report. For years Greece was losing ground in the rankings, reflecting its deteriorating political and business environment.

Actually we did not need to read the report to feel the winds of change blowing in Greece. You can smell it. And you can see it. You can see big American companies, like… Pfizer , Google … investing. We read about others looking to invest. And it makes perfect sense.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Harvard-trained prime minister, is preaching the gospel of an open economy that ensures benefits to the people of Greece of policies that produce well-paying jobs for its youth. As the benefits become clear, more and more, people are espousing this philosophy.

“Very encouraging” tweeted the Prime Minister, “to see our efforts to reform the economy being recognized. We believe in turning Greece into a business-friendly country attracting further foreign investment. Though there is more to be done, Greece is on the right path.”
Indeed. Very encouraging.