Europe

Europe

Greece economy shrinks 5.2% in Q3

15 November 2011 18:33 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Greek economic growth has contracted 5.2 percent in the latest three months from the year-earlier period, the country’s statistics authority said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting Press TV.

"Available non-seasonally-adjusted data indicate that, in the third quarter of 2011, the gross domestic product (GDP) at constant prices of year 2005 decreased by 5.2 percent in comparison with the third quarter of 2010," it said in a flash estimate, AFP reported.

The extent of the shrinkage indicates the depth of Greece’s problems as the country is struggling to reform public finances and implement a debt rescue under a new government.

The decrease in the first and second quarters were revised to 8.3 percent and 7.4 percent respectively, compared to 8.1 percent and 7.3 percent in figures released in September.

The government expects the economy to weaken by 5.5 percent this year.

Recent statistics show that the pace of growth will not rise in the current quarter. According to a Nov. 4 report, a manufacturing and services composite index in Europe dropped to a 28-month low in October.

Greece is in the midst of a debt crisis that is threatening the whole eurozone. The new government must ratify a bailout deal in three months to avoid a default and remain in the bloc.

It must approve a 130 billion euro ($177 billion) bailout agreed at an EU summit last month, and to implement policies linked to it.

Since May 2010, Greece’s economic crisis has caused sweeping turmoil across the country, forcing the government of former Prime Minister George Papandreou to resign.