ECONOMY

OECD offers gloomy forecast

Greece’s economy will shrink 6.1 percent this year and 3.0 percent in 2012, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicted on Monday.

The forecast by the Paris-based organization is more pessimistic than that of the debt-ridden country’s official lenders.

The World Economic Outlook, published Monday by OECD, said that gross domestic product (GDP) will return to growth in 2013 ? but that will be a scant 0.5 percent.

The report warned that the forecast was subject to «substantial» downside risks, and said the Mediterranean country must press ahead with deeply unpopular belt-tightening measures.

Failure to implement such reforms, the OECD warned, will make Greece’s debt burden even more unsustainable.

“Any weakening of the authorities’ resolve to fully implement the adjustment program would increase the risk of debt default,» the report said.

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