Greek current account deficit expands
Bank of Greece figures showed on Wednesday that the country’s current account deficit expanded by 2.1 billion euros last year, compared to 2017.
The growth of the deficit is mainly attributed to the increase in imports which accompanied the economy’s emergence from recession.
Exports also increased, as the growth in tourist arrivals brought with it a 10.1 percent increase in travel receipts, but that was not enough to offset the surge in imports.
Consequently, the current account balance was negative by 5.3 billion euros in 2018, against 3.2 billion at end-2017.
Although it is quite normal for imports to expand in this part of the economic cycle, due to the rise in demand for imported goods and in enterprises’ needs for raw materials and equipment, the phenomenon is generating worries in an economy that was led to the financial crisis at the end of the last decade due to the deficits in the budget and the current account balance.
