By T. Tsiros
[email protected]
Higher consumption in the first quarter of 2017, compared with the same period in 2016, along with an apparent spike in investments in the crisis-bedeviled country are cited as the two main reasons for an annualized 0.4-percent increase in Greek GDP in Q1 2017, compared with the previous quarter of 2016 (Q4).
The available non-seasonally adjusted data announced by Greece's statistical bureau (EL.STAT) were partly dampened, however, by an increase in the trade balance.
Nevertheless, the figures marked a nearly one-percentage point reversal from the previous forecast, which predicted a 0.5-percent decrease in the quarterly GDP. In absolute terms, GDP in the first quarter of 2017 reached 46.128 billion, up from 45.928 billion in Q1 2016.
The significant improvement, in a month's time, between EL.STAT's initial forecast and the provisional figures it announced for Q1 generated a heated political exchange between the leftist government and the opposition.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, in fact, posted three successive Tweets on over the development, while his office issued a triumphant statement. He also charged that the opposition was investing in "danger-mongering" when the previous (negative) forecast had been issued, while even sharply criticizing press coverage at the time and pointing to a concerted effort at present by a portion of the press against his increasingly beleaguered government.
In reply, main opposition New Democracy charged that "Mr. Tsipras is living in his own little world, without seeing reality. He recently passed a fourth memorandum with very harsh measures and without receiving anything in exchange; nothing for the debt, nor for the (ECB) quantitative easing."
