The Greek Balance of Payments and Membership of the European Economic Community

The aim of this chapter is threefold. First, to identify the major developments in the Greek balance of payments over the past five years, since the second oil crisis. Since 1979 the external sector has entered a separate and in many ways dangerous phase, since most if not all balance-of-payments variables sharply differentiate for the worse. Second, to examine the reaction of the external sector to entry into the EEC, with respect to foreign exchange availability and capital movements in general. Finally, to offer a general estimate of the likely beneficial, or adverse, effects that EEC entry has had on the economy, again from the point of view of growth rates and external financing.