On Friday, 28^th  March 2025,  Cyprus Marine Club (CMC) hosted  Members Get Together with a presentation from Prof. Nikos Vettas titled Prospects for the European Economies within New Global Challenges.

Nikos Vettas is the General Director of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research – IOBE since 2013 and Professor of Economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) since 2003, where he has also served as the Chairman of the Economics Department and a member of the University Council. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and has been an Associate Professor at Duke University, USA, and a visiting Professor at INSEAD in France and Singapore. He serves as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Industrial Organization, a Research Fellow at CEPR, UK, and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics. He has served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association and the Journal of Industrial Economics, a member of the Hellenic Competition Commission, and the Economic Advisory Group for Competition Policy at the European Commission. He is a co-organizer of the annual Conference for Research on Economic Theory and Econometrics, since 2002. His research has been published in leading journals such as the International Economic Review, European Economic Review, Rand Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economic Studies. Co-editor of Beyond Austerity: Reforming the Greek Economy (MIT Press, 2017). Vice-Chairman of the Growth Plan Committee of the Hellenic Republic for the Greek Economy, 2020.

In the presentation, Prof. Vettas covered the main developments in the global economy and how European countries could reposition themselves ahead of the new challenges. He described the evolving landscape and the changes and possible reversal in the globalization trends of the recent decades and why the main forces that have supported high growth rates in the western economies may be weakening. In case high tariffs and other protectionist policies prevail in international trade, inflation is expected to remain relatively high, and stagnation cannot be rules out in the major economies. Uncertainty about policy choices currently tends to postpone investments, until a new balance will be found. Europe finds itself in a difficult position, with weak productivity and demographic dynamics, however, policies that can leverage its comparative advantages, such as in human capital, can help boost its growth prospects. Finally, he discussed why Cyprus and Greece currently compare favourably with the rest of the Eurozone in terms of growth and fiscal performance, and how this could be a basis for reforms that will sustain higher incomes in the middle run.

The President of the Cyprus Marine Club, Capt. E. Koch   in his opening speech shared with attendees his contentment about the high number of participants, introduced new members and reminded us about the Club’s next events scheduled for  29^th April 2025 with Green Energy Group and then  first AGM and Election booked for 23^rd May 2025 at Amara Hotel  (to see the full schedule of our events please visit our website:  www. cyprusmarineclub.org.cy)