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About Greece
Greece General Information
It is a peninsular and mountainous country situated in southeast Europe on the Mediterranean Sea, with a total area of 130.800 km2. The country is surrounded by the sea. The greek islands represent one fifth of the country's area. Greece has about 1400 greek islands of which 169 are inhabited. The majority of the islands are scattered in the Aegean Sea between the Greek and Turkish coasts.
Greece has a population of 10,610,000 (2000) of which 3.7 million are located in Athens, the country's capital.
The conventional names of the country are Ellas or Hellada or Elliniki Dimocratia (Hellenic Republic).
The democratic Greek system is working like a parliamentary republic with a president as the head of the state.
The actual head of government is the Prime Minister Karamanlis and the chief of state is the President Konstandinos Stephanopoulos.
Language
Greek is the unique language of the country but most of the people connected to tourism and the younger generations currently use English at a good level.
Religion
98% of the Greek population belongs to the Orthodox Church. The rest of the Greek population is Roman Catholic, Muslim and Jewish. Russia is the only other country with such a proportion of Orthodox. The Orthodox Church forms the third largest branch of Christianity.
Economy
Greece is one of the poorest countries in the European Union, even though its economy has improved after the EU's single currency (the euro) and the country's preparation for the Olympic Games. Greece is an agricultural country. 22% of the workforce is employed for agriculture, 27% in the industry sector and 50 % in the services.
Even if the economy of Greece has improved in recent years due to the tight policy before and after EU's single currency and the preparation for the Olympic Games of 2004, Greece is one of the poorest countries of the European Union with the second-to-lowest average income.
Its Greece economy improvement is: a budget deficit below 1% of GDP and an inflation which fell from 20% to 3.1% from 1990 and 2000.
Nevertheless, the reconstruction of the economy and the reduction of unemployment (11.3%) are the major challenges of the country.
Characteristics: Greece has a mixed capitalistic economy with a large public sector that accounts about half of GDP and that is blamed for the slow economic growth...
It is an agricultural country (with agricultural products such as wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, olives, tomatoes, tobacco, potatoes, beef, dairy products and wine) with 20 % of the workforce employed in this sector. 59 % of the workforce is employed in the sector of services and the 21 % in the sector of industry (food and tobacco processing, textiles, chemicals, metal products, mining and petroleum) and construction. Even if Greece is an agricultural country, the agricultural contribution to the economy is only of 15 %.
The industry which contributes the most to the economy is the tourism industry and the shipping. Greece welcomes every year a number of tourists greater than the country's total population and its shipping sector is the most important in the world.
Exportations: Greece exports total 12.5 billion dollars of manufactured goods, fuels, food and beverages to countries such as Germany, Italy, UK, France and the US.
Importations: The imports of the country are higher (around 28 billion dollars); they consist in manufactured goods, foodstuffs, fuels and chemicals. Its imports partners are Italy, Germany, France, UK, Netherlands and US.
External Debt: Its external debts are over 42 billion dollars and the country has an economic aid from the EU of more than 5.5 billion dollars.
Time
GMT + 2 (GMT + 3 from last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October).
Working Hours
The Public services are opened from 08.00 to 14.00 from Monday to Friday. The private companies are opened from 09.00 till 17.00.
The shops are opened Monday-Wednesday- Saturday from 09.00 to 15.00 and Tuesday-Thursday-Friday from 09.00 to 14.00 and 17.00 to 08.00.
These shops' working hours highly differ in the touristy areas, where some shops remain open all day long and sometimes until late at night.
Mobile telephone
The network coverage is quite good in most parts of the country except from some areas like mountains and in some small islands. The main operators are Vodafone, Cosmote, Telestet and Q.
Internet
Internet is available in all the cities of Greece and in the touristic areas (islands).
Press
Greece is the European country with the bigger number of newspapers. There are 18 daily newspapers in Athens. Foreign press can be found in cities and popular islands.
Electricity
220 volts AC, 50Hz. Round two-pin plugs are used. North American require a transformer and British an adaptor sometimes German, Italian or French.
Extra information
Telephone Greece:
International Dialling Codes - International Dialing Codes & Directories -
Greece Yellow Pages - Greece Yellow Pages -
Weather:
Weather Underground - Athens, Greece Forecast -
Search Greece:
Search Yahoo - Search Yahoo - A searchable Directory of Greece.
The Hellenic Search Engine - The Hellenic Search Engine - Search engine and directory service for the Greek.
Go Greece - Go Greece - An Internet Guide to Greece.
Maps & Facts:
More Maps of Greece - More Maps of Greece - A number of maps from The Perry - Castaneda Library Map Collection.
The World Factbook - Data & Statistics on Greece - (by the CIA).
Atlapedia Online - Atlapedia Online - (by Latimer Clarke Corporation).
Columbia Encyclopedia - Columbia Encyclopedia - (by Columbia University Press).
Greek Ethnologue - Greek Ethnologue - The languages in Greece.
The Greek Flag - The Greek Flag -
Travel Information :
Greek National Tourist Board - Greek National Tourist Board - The official Web site.
World Travel Guide - World Travel Guide - (by Columbus Publishing Ltd.)
Lonely Planet Destinations - Lonely Planet Destinations - (by Lonely Planet Publications).
Atevo Travel Destinations - Atevo Travel Destinations - (by Atevo, Inc.)
History:
History of Greece - History of Greece - (by Encyclopedia.com)
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