The European Commission has published its latest forecasts for the Greek economy in 2016, which are improved compared to the forecasts published in the winter.
Although the Greek economy will remain in a recession (-0.3% GDP), the rate is milder than the initial forecast for a rate of -0.7% GDP. The Greek economy will however return to growth in 2017, with a 2.7% GDP rate.
Similarly, the rate of unemployment will drop from 24.9% in 2015 to 24.7% in 2016 and to 23.6% in 2017.
The budget deficit is expected to drop from -7.5% GDP in 2015 to -3.1% in 2016 and then -1.8% in 2017. Again, this an improvement over the previous forecasts of -3.4% in 2016 and -2.1% in 2017).
Meanwhile, the public debt will grow from 176.9% GDP in 2015 to 182.8% GDP in 2016, only to begin to drop in 2017 (178.8%).
As for the rate of inflation, the EC predicts that from -1.1% in 2015, it will be -0.3% in 2016 and 0.6% in 2017. Finally, investments grew by 0.7% in 2015 and are expected to decline by 0.9% in 2016, only to grow by 11.6% in 2017.
