By T. Tsiros
[email protected]
A revision, downwards, of the IMF's forecast for Greek GDP growth this year - from 2.2 percent to 1.8 percent - comes a week before the Fund's annual autumn meetings in Washington and ahead of a return of creditors' auditors and technocrats back to Athens for talks to conclude the third review of the ongoing bailout.
The previous forecast, 2.2 percent, was announced last April, before the Fund's annual spring meetings.
The growth revision is noteworthy for the fact that it is the product of a separate IMF team of analysts, and not the unit that studies and composes the Fund's memorandum-related texts and forecasts for the Greek bailout memorandum.
The forecast for 2018 was also revised downwards, from 2.7 percent to 2.6 percent.
Nevertheless, the revised forecasts are still compatible with the Greek government's predictions for 2017 and 2018, as listed in a draft state budget for the coming year, which was tabled in Parliament.
