Assessment and recommendations

This assessment identifies distortions to competition in Greek legislation and proposes recommendations for the removal of regulatory barriers to competition in four key areas of the Greek economy: food processing, retail trade, building materials and tourism, with additional investigation of cross-cutting legislation that concerns these four areas. The 555 regulatory restrictions that were identified were analysed, and the report makes 329 specific recommendations, with an additional 40 provisions that are an administrative burden to businesses. Among the benefits from increased competition will be lower prices and greater choice and variety for consumers as a result of entry of new, more efficient firms or from new forms of production in existing firms. This report identifies the sources of those benefits and, where possible, provides quantitative estimates. If the particular restrictions that have been identified during the project are lifted, the OECD has calculated a positive effect for the Greek economy of around EUR 5.2 billion.