GDP revision points to recovery
The revision of the country’s gross domestic product by the Hellenic Statistical Authority may have cut last year’s contraction rate to 3.3 percent, but it also showed a dramatic contraction of 9 percent in 2011 against a previous estimate of 7 percent.
According to figures released on Friday, the 2013 GDP amounted to 182.4 billion euros, against 182 billion reached using the previous calculation method, or a negligible difference of 0.2 percent.
The difference was much greater in the first year of the crisis than previously thought, as the GDP contraction rate in 2008 was 0.4 percent, instead of 0.2 percent. Then in 2009 it was 4.4 percent instead of 3.1 percent, in 2010 5.4 percent instead of 4.9 percent, and in 2011 8.9 percent instead of 7.1 percent.
By contrast, the contractions in the last couple of years were smaller than previously estimated: In 2012 the economy shrank by 6.6 percent instead of 7 percent and last year 3.3 percent rather than 3.9 percent. The reversal of the trend boosts hopes that the country will finally return to growth at the end of 2014. However it is not yet known how the new calculation method will affect estimates for a 0.6 percent recovery this year.
