When I first arrived in Thessaloniki, I marveled at the abundant polykatoikia, Greek housing flats, along the Thessaloniki Bay. As you drive on the northern highway, which takes you around the city, the construction workers are paving roads, and the expansion of urban sprawl continues. Restaurants, shops, and car dealerships ranging from Porsche to Tesla are as far as the eye can see. Since the 1990s, former farming communities have urbanized to form the larger Thessaloniki metropolitan area, which holds a population of roughly 1.1 million people. Today it is Greece’s second largest city, after Athens. 

Driving through northern Greece, less infrastructure and housing are evident. Restaurants, shops, and even gas stations are sparse, but there remains ample untouched forestry within the Pindus mountain range. From my last time here eight years ago, I noticed more windmills built in the mountains. However, learning from the locals that companies will come in and offer large sums of money to buy land to place the windmills there without proper infrastructure, these kinds of choices by their energy companies are highly dubious.

The next day, a ferry from Igoumenitsa took us to the popular Ionian island of Corfu. Tourism and the hotel industry is the biggest economic revenue machine here, with family-run gift shops and hotels dependent on travelers to purchase their products and stay at their resorts.

Desolate homes in Greece’s underpopulated countryside. (Photo courtesy of Stella Mazonakis, The Greek City Times.)

After spending four days in Corfu, we went to Athens for a night. We avoided the downtown area due to prolonged traffic, besides quickly stopping at our apartment in Kolonos to pick up mail. This area has undergone rapid gentrification since I last visited, with more younger Greeks moving in because the cost of rent is lower in a city with over 3.1 million people, including the broader urban area. Athens is experiencing a severe housing and rent crisis because the development of new residences faces a downturn from construction freezes and low wages. On top of that, the city’s road system was only built to hold 2 million cars and each Greek household now averages two cars, more than doubling the amount the city can withhold. (This doesn’t include rental cars driven by tourists!)

Onward to the Aegean Sea, the ferries are predominantly full of a mix of locals and tourists. We only stopped in Mykonos, passing by Andros and Tinos. Mykonos’s idyllic white and blue Cycladic architecture draws hundreds of thousands of tourists to the island each year. One would think such tourism would offset the massive debt but due to systemic tax evasion, foreign-owned corporate buildings, and seasonal operational capacity for just 5 months out of the year, this dwarfs the seasonal earnings.

Greece’s economy as a whole lacks centralization to achieve the economies of scale that can lower production costs, boost export competitiveness, and shrink its enormous debt-to-GDP ratio, standing at a whopping 146% in 2025, the highest in all of Europe.

At present, the bustling port cities of Athens and Thessaloniki do not have the economic wherewithal to achieve the mass level of economic boom that would structurally shift Greece into a job market evolution and increase FDI.

Greece must work on increasing its commercial, energy, and technological partnerships with its transatlantic partners. The sovereign debt has already been driven down from 209.4% in 2020, to the present 136.8% through early loan repayment plans and a continued effort to expand its economy. However, it is not enough. Greece must work on expanding its LNG infrastructure including the Alexandroupolis floating status facility. Attracting FDI from American and Canadian tech firms to build data centers would  surely modernize the economy. Further digitalization is the key for future economic prosperity to catch up to its regional competitors. Canada and Greece have a strong trade agreement through CETA, but not enough is being done for the tech hub and accelerator corridors.

Although there is no simple solution to the sovereign debt and lack of a centralized economy, expansion of transatlantic partnerships with the U.S. and Canada may transfer Greece into a vibrant energy hub, which will create more jobs and move Greece into alignment with its allies on critical technologies.