Greek PM upbeat about Greece's return to growth despite negative economic figures

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appeared upbeat about the Greek economy's return to growth during a cabinet meeting on Monday despite new figures showing shrinkage.

After seven years of recession, Greece has turned a page and returned to positive growth rates and will meet its bailout goals, Tsipras said as Greek statistics agency ELSTAT published the revised figures for 2016.

ELSTAT revised downwards its estimates on the course of the country's GDP in the fourth quarter of 2016 to minus 1.1 percent compared with the same period in 2015, from an initial estimate of a 0.3 percent growth reported in February.

On a quarterly basis, Greek GDP fell 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 from the third quarter. According to Monday's data, the country's GDP shrank 0.05 percent from an initial estimate of a 0.3 percent growth rate.

Despite the negative news, government sources insisted on Monday that Greece can still reach its target for 2.7 percent growth in 2017.

However, in initial reactions to the ELSTAT announcement, economic analysts did not share the optimism.

"Q4's sharper-than-anticipated drop in Greek GDP is clearly very bad news. This will add to International Monetary Fund (IMF) skepticism about Greece's ability to reach its fiscal targets and increases the risk that the bailout will collapse," commented research group Capital Economics, according to Liberal.gr news portal.

"Revised ELSTAT figures support the IMF's hard stance in negotiations. The sudden drop of the Greek GDP is a mine for the negotiations," added Sofokleous financial daily.

The revised estimates on Greek GDP came as the government continued negotiations in Athens with envoys of Greece's international creditors on the terms of the release of the next aid tranche.

The second review of Greece's third bailout, agreed in the summer of 2015, has been delayed for a year, as the two sides have not reached consensus on the next package of austerity and reform measures.

Athens seeks an agreement in the upcoming Eurogroup meeting on March 20 so that Greek bonds can be included in the European Central Bank's quantitative easing program.

 Source: Xinhua