As of 2015, Greece is the fifteenth-largest economy in the 28-member European Union.
Greece is a developed country with an economy based on the service (82.8%) and industrial sectors (13.3%). The agricultural sector contributed 3.9% of national economic output in 2015. Important Greek industries include tourism and shipping. With 18 million international tourists in 2013, Greece was the 7th most visited country in the European Union and 16th in the world.The Greek Merchant Navy is the largest in the world, with Greek-owned vessels accounting for 15% of global deadweight tonnage as of 2013. The increased demand for international maritime transportation between Greece and Asia has resulted in unprecedented investment in the shipping industry.
The country is a significant agricultural producer within the EU. Greece has the largest economy in the Balkans and is as an important regional investor. Greece was the largest foreign investor in Albania in 2013, the third in Bulgaria, in the top-three in Romania and Serbia and the most important trading partner and largest foreign investor in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.The Greek telecommunications company OTE has become a strong investor in former Yugoslavia and in other Balkan countries.
World War II (1939-1945) devastated the country’s economy, but the high levels of economic growth that followed from 1950 to 1980 have been called the Greek economic miracle. From 2000 Greece saw high levels of GDP growth above the Eurozone average, peaking at 5.8% in 2003 and 5.7% in 2006. The subsequent Great Recession and Greek government-debt crisis, a central focus of the wider European debt crisis, plunged the economy into a sharp downturn, with real GDP growth rates of −0.3% in 2008, −4.3% in 2009, −5.5% in 2010, −9.1% in 2011, −7.3% in 2012 and −3.2% in 2013. In 2011, the country’s public debt reached €356 billion (172% of nominal GDP). After negotiating the biggest debt restructuring in history with the private sector, Greece reduced its sovereign debt burden to €280 billion (137% of GDP) in the first quarter of 2012. Greece achieved a real GDP growth rate of 0.7% in 2014 after 6 years of economic decline, but fell back into recession in 2015.