Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, Greece shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin, featuring thousands of islands. The country comprises nine traditional geographic regions, and has a population of over 10.4 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras.
The economy of Greece is the 54th largest in the world, with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $250.276 billion per annum. In terms of purchasing power parity, Greece is the world's 55th largest economy, at $430.125 billion per annum. As of 2023, Greece is the sixteenth largest economy in the European Union and eleventh largest in the eurozone. According to the International Monetary Fund's figures for 2024, Greece's GDP per capita is $23,966 at nominal value and $41,188 at purchasing power parity. Among OECD nations, Greece has a highly efficient and strong social security system; social expenditure stood at roughly 24.1% of GDP.
Sticker art is a form of street art in which an image or message is publicly displayed using stickers. These stickers may promote a political agenda, comment on a policy or issue, or comprise a subcategory of graffiti.
The Bank of Greece is the Greek member of the Eurosystem and has been the monetary authority for Greece from 1927 to 2000, issuing the drachma. Since 2014, it has also been Greece's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision.
The National Bank of Greece is a banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1841 as the newly independent country's first financial institution, it has long been the largest Greek bank, a position it still held in the early 21st century. Following the financial turmoil of the Greek government-debt crisis in the 2010s, it remains one of Greece's four dominant banks together with Alpha Bank, Eurobank Ergasias, and Piraeus Bank. It has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank. NBG offers financial products and services for corporate and institutional clients along with private and business customers. Services include banking services, brokerage, insurance, asset management, shipping finance, leasing and factoring markets.
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known mostly by its acronym PASOK, is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was one of the two major parties in the country, along with New Democracy, its main political rival. After a decade of poor electoral outcomes, PASOK has retained its position as one of the main Greek political parties and is currently the third largest party in the Greek Parliament.
The Popular Orthodox Rally or People's Orthodox Alarm, often abbreviated to LAOS (ΛΑ.Ο.Σ.) as a reference to the Greek word for people, is a Greek right-wing populist political party. It was founded by journalist Georgios Karatzaferis in 2000, a few months after he was expelled from the centre-right New Democracy. Today, the party is led by Philippos Kampouris.
Panathinaikos Football Club, known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO, is a Greek professional football club based in Athens, Greece.
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
Kathimerini is a daily, political and financial morning newspaper published in Piraeus, Athens. Its first edition was printed on 15 September 1919. Kathimerini is considered a newspaper of record and the leading right-wing newspaper in Greece, with the highest circulation and a strong digital presence.
Maroussi B.C. alternately translated as Marousi, Amaroussi, or Amaroussion, is a professional basketball club that is based in Marousi, a northern suburb of Athens, Greece. The club's full name is Gymnastikos Syllogos Maroussi Basketball Club, which is commonly abbreviated as G.S. Maroussi B.C.
The Hotel Grande Bretagne is a luxury hotel in Athens, Greece. It is located on Syntagma Square, on the corner of Vasileos Georgiou A' and Panepistimiou Streets. It is owned presently by Lampsa Hellenic Hotels.
George Bouzianis was a major Greek expressionist painter.
Ioannis Georgiou "Yanis" Varoufakis is a Greek economist and politician. Since 2018, he has been Secretary-General of Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), a left-wing pan-European political party he co-founded in 2016. Previously, he was a member of Syriza and was Greece's Minister of Finance between January 2015 and July 2015, negotiating on behalf of the Greek government during the 2009-2018 Greek government-debt crisis.
Debt crisis is a situation in which a government loses the ability of paying back its governmental debt. When the expenditures of a government are more than its tax revenues for a prolonged period, the government may enter into a debt crisis. Various forms of governments finance their expenditures primarily by raising money through taxation. When tax revenues are insufficient, the government can make up the difference by issuing debt.
The Greek government-debt crisis is one of a number of current European sovereign-debt crises. In late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations because of strong increase in government debt levels. This led to a crisis of confidence, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and the cost of risk insurance on credit default swaps compared to the other countries in the Eurozone, most importantly Germany.
The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, was a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s that made it difficult or impossible for some countries in the euro area to repay or refinance their government debt without the assistance of third parties.
The Second Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece, usually referred to as the second bailout package or the second memorandum, is a memorandum of understanding on financial assistance to the Hellenic Republic in order to cope with the Greek government-debt crisis.
The anti-austerity movement in Greece involved a series of demonstrations and general strikes that took place across the country. The events, which began on 5 May 2010, were provoked by plans to cut public spending and raise taxes as austerity measures in exchange for a €110 billion bail-out, aimed at solving the Greek government-debt crisis. Three people were killed on 5 May in one of the largest demonstrations in Greece since 1973.
Dimitris Paraskevas is a Supreme Court attorney in Athens, Greece, specializing in international M&A and privatisations. Previously, he held the position of Secretary for Privatisation of the Hellenic Republic. He is the son of Elias Paraskevas, a former Vice President of the Athens Bar Association, who is recognised as having shaped the case law of the Supreme Court and the Council of State in Greece for over 45 years.
