Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Greece to stabilise this year, but recovery road will be long

Reuters
April 16, 2014

The outlook for Greece's economy has improved but analysts say the revival in investor sentiment that led Athens to tap the bond markets again this month still needs to be backed up by better data, a Reuters poll found.

After six straight years of recession that has reduced the economy by about a quarter of its size and driven unemployment to a record of nearly 28 percent, Greece's economy is expected to begin a long road to recovery this year.

Thursday's poll of nearly 35 economists and strategists taken in the past week pointed to an expansion of just 0.3 percent this year, lower than the EU/IMF projection of 0.6 percent the Greek central bank's forecast of 0.5 percent growth.

Those growth projections are not far behind consensus expectations for the euro zone economy as a whole.

"There are increasing signs the Greek economy is stabilizing and we expect to see a positive reading in terms of GDP growth at some quarter down the road this year," said economist Angelos Tsakanikas at IOBE, a research firm.

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