IOBE expects investment to grow 12-14 pct in 2019
Investment activity in Greece is expected to accelerate next year, helping to raise the country’s growth rate to 2.4 percent from an estimated 2 percent this year, according to a quarterly report released on Wednesday by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE).
Next year will see fixed investment in the country increase by 12 to 14 percent on a yearly basis, IOBE predicted.
The Athens-based think tank maintained its economic growth forecast for 2018. However, the unchanged forecast is not based on investments, which are projected to rise just 4 percent year-on-year by the end of this year, below original expectations. Instead, it is based mainly on exports, which are predicted to rise 8 percent from 2017 by year-end, and the slight increase in household consumption in the second half of the year, by 0.6 percent on an annual basis, which will keep the growth rate in line with the estimates of the country’s creditors, the report noted.
At the presentation of the report in Athens, IOBE Managing Director Nikos Vettas commented that the fiscal adjustment of the last few years has generated concern and that the next few months will be crucial for the medium-term course of the Greek economy.
He attributed his concern to the fact that the adjustment took place in a recessionary context and not through a structural transformation of the economy.
Although positive, the growth rates still lag behind the level that would have allowed for a convergence with the rest of the eurozone, Vettas argued.
[Xinhua]
