The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday revised, upwards, its forecast for the Greek economy this year, to 2.6 percent, up from its autumn forecast of 1.8 percent in October 2022.

Food prices continue to rally at high rates, causing great concern to consumers who "see" their incomes decrease. As the data released yesterday by the Hellenic Statistical Authority-ELSTAT showed, food inflation is more than three times higher than the increase in the general consumer price index. The situation has become unbearable in recent months, as the index in the group "food and non-alcoholic beverages" from 13.5% in September reached 14.8% in October 2022, touched 15% in November, and peaked at 15.5% in December, while in January it was at 15.4%. In February it "fell" a bit to 14.8% to be end up in March at 14.3%. Of course, it is worth noting that this imperceptible de-escalation does not mean anything to consumers, as these are large price increases, which come to be added to the previous ones.

The recovery of the investment grade in 2023 is looming on the horizon, even if it is still too early for safe conclusions. The achievement of an almost balanced budget in 2022 also works in this direction. The initial estimates spoke of a primary deficit of 1.6%, however it seems that the better course of the budget - due to inflation which brought much more revenue to the state but not to citizens – leads to an almost zero deficit last year, something that the political leadership of the Ministry of Finance has also mentioned.