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Greek Economy Deflates Sharply in October

The Greek statistics office, ELSTAT, just released the October Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) deflation number.

As renown economist Edward Hugh opined on these figures:

"Minus 1.9%, that's quite a sharp drop from last months minus 1%. I think it is safe to say now that Greece has fully entered deflation and that it won't be going away soon.

This will cause havoc with the debt ratios. Even allowing we see a 0.5% expansion in the economy in real terms next year (which I personally don't expect), if prices fall 2% then nominal GDP will fall 1.5% and the debt ratio will be heading onwards and upwards towards 200% of GDP."