The Athens Stock Exchange is the stock exchange of Greece, based in the capital city of Athens. It was founded in 1876. There are currently five markets operating in ATHEX: regulated securities market, regulated derivatives market, Alternative market, carbon market and OTC market. In the regulated securities market investors can trade in stocks, bonds, ETFs and other related securities. On the stock exchange 172 stocks are currently traded representing 166 companies.

Greece faced a sovereign debt crisis in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Widely known in the country as The Crisis, it reached the populace as a series of sudden reforms and austerity measures that led to impoverishment and loss of income and property, as well as a "humanitarian crisis". In all, the Greek economy suffered the longest recession of any advanced mixed economy to date. As a result, the Greek political system was upended, social exclusion increased, and hundreds of thousands of well-educated Greeks left the country.