Trade between Australia and Greece remained at low levels last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The ABS reports that during the financial year 2010-2011, Greece exported goods worth $151 million to Australia, with the main items being vegetables – prepared and preserved ($27m), medicines ($20m), aluminium ($18m) and cheese ($13m).
In the most recent DFAT fact sheet for Greece, compiled using data from the ABS and the IMF, exports from Australia to Greece during the same period totalled $40m and included medicaments ($6m) waste and scrap ($2m), hides and skins ($2m) and paints ($1m). 56 per cent of Australian exports to Greece were deemed confidential.
In 2010, Australia’s combined investments in Greece totalled $142 million.
Greece’s top three export destinations in 2010 were France, Belgium, and the Russian Federation, representing over 50 per cent of all Greek exports.
Australia came in 35th place, accounting for 0.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, trade in services between Greece and Australia is almost double that of goods.
Putting all other figures in the shade, during the same period Greece earned more than $340m from providing travel services to Australians, reinforcing the centrality of tourism to Greece’s economic relationship with Australia.
