EU: Greek Economy upbeat
A week before Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis gives his annual keynote economic policy speech at the opening of the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, the government said it is satisfied the Greek economy is doing as well it could given the difficult international environment. "Greece today has a satisfactory growth rate and unemployment is falling, despite the serious difficulties in the international environment, with the rising price of oil and the stagnation in the European Union," National Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis told reporters after attending a meeting with Karamanlis and industrialists' representatives. "Of course, the growth rate could be higher, but under the present circumstances and given the post-Olympic downturn in activity, it is the highest possible. Furthermore, fiscal deficits are falling significantly," Alogoskoufis added.
Greece's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. Alogoskoufis said this week second-quarter growth will be as fast and predicted the annual growth rate to be 3.6 percent, against a forecast of 3.9 percent in the budget. In 2004, the economy grew at a pace of 4.1 percent, more than double the eurozone average. The number of registered unemployed in July dropped by 40,570 from the previous year level of 458,700, and the National Statistics Service's official rate for the first quarter of 2005 was 10.4 percent. The European Union has given Greece two years to bring its fiscal deficit down from 6.4 percent of GDP last year to below the mandatory 3 percent.
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