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Greece: Investments Reach 15% Of GDP

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

February 7, 2025

Investments in Greece grew by 2.2% annually from January to September 2024, as reported by Alpha Bank’s economic bulletin. This increase is moderate compared to the 2025 budget estimate of 6.7% growth for the entire year.

Despite the moderate increase in 2024, investments have consistently contributed positively to Greece’s GDP in recent years, now accounting for approximately 15% of GDP (since the end of 2023). This is notably lower than the average 22% of GDP in the eurozone.

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The bank’s economists estimate that the government’s forecasted 8.4% increase in investments in 2025 could push the share of investments to 17.5% of GDP, narrowing the “investment gap” compared to the eurozone forecast of 20.8%.

Key Numbers:

Annual investment growth (January-September 2024): 2.2%.
Investments as a percentage of GDP: 15% in Greece, compared to 22% in the eurozone.
Projected public investments (2025-2028): €64.2 billion.
Foreign direct investment: Exceeds €5 billion annually on average in the last five years.

Key Sectors:

Industry: Investments in the industry have been growing continuously since 2018, reaching €5.4 billion in 2023.
Public Administration & Defense: Exceeded €5.3 billion in 2023.
Real Estate: Investments reached €5 billion in 2023.

More than half of total investments are concentrated in these three sectors, while sectors such as Transport & Storage, Education, and Professional Services have seen a decline.

Significant changes have occurred in the composition of investments since the pre-crisis period, when housing represented over 40% of total investments and approximately 10% of GDP. In 2024, it is estimated that housing will represent 14.3% of total investments and 2.3% of GDP.

Public investments are expected to play a crucial role in the medium term, with €64.2 billion projected for the 2025-2028 period. This includes investments from the EU and the Recovery Fund, with €9.8 billion expected from the Recovery Fund in 2025 and €11.6 billion in 2026. Recovery Fund grants are expected to end by mid-2026, although loan disbursements will continue until 2027-2028.

Foreign direct investment has shown promising growth in recent years, with an average of over €5 billion per year (excluding 2020). A recent survey revealed that 50% of respondents plan to expand or develop activities in Greece in the coming year, compared to 30% in 2019.

Greece was ranked 19th among the most attractive EU countries for foreign investment in 2024. This ranking highlights the intensifying competition and underscores the need for further improvements to the country’s investment environment.

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Anthropic Launches Claude Fable 5 With New AI Safety Controls

New Model Sets The Bar For AI Safety And Efficiency

Anthropic has launched Claude Fable 5, the latest public version of its Mythos model, expanding access to a system designed for software engineering, knowledge work and computer vision tasks. The company said high-risk requests involving areas such as cybersecurity, biology, chemistry and AI model distillation will be redirected to Claude Opus 4.8, which has been configured with additional safeguards.

Strategic Rollout And Broader Accessibility

Mythos was initially made available to a limited group of partners in April as Anthropic evaluated potential cybersecurity risks associated with the model. Access was expanded last week to hundreds of organisations across 15 countries, primarily those operating critical infrastructure. Claude Fable 5 is now available through Anthropic’s Claude API and usage-based Enterprise plans. Early access has also been included in selected subscription tiers ahead of a broader pricing rollout scheduled for June 23.

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Advancing Safety And Industry Standards

Anthropic said the model underwent extensive safety testing before release, including bug bounty programmes and red-team exercises conducted by external organisations. According to the company, more than 1,000 hours of testing did not identify any universal jailbreak vulnerabilities.

A mandatory 30-day data retention policy will apply to all traffic processed by the model, including accounts that previously operated under zero-retention agreements. Anthropic said the measure is intended to improve monitoring and protection against emerging security threats.

Outstanding Performance And Competitive Pricing

Independent evaluations, including testing by analytics company Hex, reported strong performance in complex reasoning and analytical tasks. Companies, including Base44 and Genspark, highlighted improvements in tool use and interface design capabilities. Pricing has been set at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, compared with lower rates for previous models. Some enterprise customers, including Rakuten, said the model’s ability to verify aspects of its own output could help improve efficiency in tasks that require higher levels of accuracy.

Implications For The AI Market

The release comes as Anthropic prepares for a potential public market debut, and competition among leading AI developers continues to intensify. Alongside performance improvements, the company has placed significant emphasis on model safety, reflecting broader industry concerns around misuse, jailbreak attempts and the risks associated with increasingly capable AI systems.