Raising electronic transactions to levels around the average European South will further shrink informal economy and will add 0.5 pct to the country’s average annual growth rate in the period 2016-2020 and around 1.5 billion euros to tax revenue, a National Bank survey said on Thursday.
The bank’s analysts noted that lowering dependence in cash was estimated to have added directly 1.4 pct of GDP in the second half of 2015 as a boom in e-transactions seemed to have played a pivotal role in limiting informal economy. The report said that e-transactions added 1.4 pct of GDP in the second half of 2015, or 0.8 pct to the annual GDP and noted that excluding this contribution the Greek economy would have contracted by around 2.5 pct in 2015.
Raising e-payments closer to the European South average
National Bank’s analysts estimate that an annual increase in e-payments of around 10 pct would add around 0.2 pct on average to the annual growth rate of the country’s GDP and noted that raising e-payments closer to the European South average (around 12 pct of GDP in Italy, Spain and Portugal), from 6.8 pct of GDP in 2015 could add 0.5 pct to the annual average growth rate in Greece in the period 2016-2020 (4.5 billion euros to the GDP) and more than 1.5 billion euros in tax revenue over the same period.
National Bank’s analysts expected the Greek economy to contract by 0.2 pct on average this year, but to record an 1.7 pct growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2016, while e-payments are projected to rise by 2.5 pct of GDP this year, adding 0.7 pct of the country’s GDP.
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