Greek economy grew 2.3 pct in third quarter

More specifically, the 2.3 pct growth rate reflected a 0.5 pct increase in final consumption spending (household consumption rose 0.2 pct while general government consumption eased 0.5 pct), private investments (gross fixed capital investments) rose 2.0 pct, exports of goods and services rose 9.5 pct (exports of goods increased 6.2 pct and exports of services jumped 14.5 pct), while imports of goods and services fell 2.9 pct (imports of goods fell 4.9 pct and imports of services rose 8.6 pct).

On a quarterly basis, final consumption spending eased 0.4 pct compared with the second quarter of 2019 (household consumption rose 0.4 pct and general government consumption fell 6.9 pct), private investments fell 5.0 pct, exports of goods and services rose 4.5 pct (exports of goods were up 2.4 pct and exports of services rose 6.7 pct), while imports of goods and services edged 0.6 pct up (imports of goods fell 1.0 pct and imports of services rose 8.1 pct).

The statistics service revised upwards its estimate for GDP growth in the first and second quarter (up 1.4 pct and 2.8 pct, respectively). The state budget envisages a growth rate of 2.0 pct this year and 2.8 pct in 2020. Based on non-seasonally corrected data, Greek GDP grew 2.7 pct in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the same period in 2018.