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Is Greece Still an Investing Opportunity?

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  • (0:45) - Is Greece Making A Comeback?
  • (4:55) - International Investments Into Greece
  • (11:10) - Tourism, GDP and Debt
  • (15:45) - Best Ways to Invest Into Greece
  • (23:20) - Episode Roundup: GREK, AAL, UAL, RCL, BKNG, EXPD, TRIP, FB, PINS
  •             Podcast@Zacks.com

Welcome to Episode #203 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast.

Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life.

This week, Tracey is joined by Zacks Product Manager Harry Kougias, who is Greek and regularly returns to Greece.

This is Harry’s fourth appearance on the Zacks Market Edge to talk about Greece. He was on the very first podcast back in 2016.

Back then, the future seemed dire for Greece as it was going through a leadership change and instituting cuts in pensions under the austerity program.

But in 2018, Greece’s GDP grew 1.9%, which was better than economic powerhouses Germany or France, and is expected to be just over 2% this year.

Even as some parts of the Eurozone have slowed, Greece is expected to ramp up growth closer to 3% in 2020.

Greek Stock Market Soars

Investors have noticed the change in circumstance and have jumped into the Global X Greek ETF (GREK - Free Report) in 2019.

Shares of GREK have soared 44.2% year-to-date as the overall Greek stock market is up 47.3%.

That’s it’s best years since 1999.

But other than the Greece ETF, how else can investors get in on the rebound in Greece?

Stocks to Tap the Tourism Boom

Greek tourism continues to flourish despite Brexit, the failure of travel agent Thomas Cook and the slowing of the German economy. The Bank of Greece expects 2019 to be another record year for the tourism industry.

Most hotels in Greece are family and locally owned so there’s no easy REIT to invest in.

But several US airlines have been adding flights to Greece as demand increases including United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) and American Airlines (AAL - Free Report) .

Cruising continues to be popular as well with Royal Caribbean (RCL - Free Report) one of the companies that serves the market.

But many people can’t actually make a trip, so they can only dream of one on social media platforms like Pinterest (PINS - Free Report) .

What else do you need to know about Greece heading into 2020?

Tune into this week’s podcast to find out.

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