The year 1923 was a trial period for the economic life of the country, since the agricultural and industrial production had reduced significantly. Shipping was undergoing a crisis, the cost of living was rising, imports were increasing and along with them the deficit in the country's trade balance. However, in the same period there were certain factors that favoured a peculiar industrial development, which had already been profited from the particular conditions created by World War I. Certain amongst them were the low-cost workforce that the arrival of refugees offered, combined of course with the exclusion of the possibility to emigrate to the United States. Other factors were the accumulation and investment of capital by people of Greek descent living in Greek communities abroad (a tendency first noticed before the War) and finally the interventionist, albeit hesitant, role of the state in economy.