"Greece is turning a page … all the international organisations agree that next year, 2014, will be the year of recovery for the Greek economy"
- Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras
Greece Prime Minister Antonis Samaras tried to spread a message of optimism among the market participants during the International Fair by pledging there will be no new austerity measures and that the economy is likely to exit the recession in the next year. Greece has contracted 23% since 2008, and so far it has received two bailouts totalling 240 billion euros. However, according to the nation's official, six years of recession are moving to an end. His comments were supported by the recent GDP report that showed the economy shrank 3.8% in the second quarter - the smallest decline since the outbreak of the country's worst financial crisis. Samaras also pledged that in case the pace of current progress will persist, the country will succeed in shaving its debt burden, the biggest in the 17-nation economy.
At the same time he also does not exclude the possibility of additional help from international lenders, who are already identified a hole of at least $11 billion in the struggling economy next year, as tax revenues are off projections due to weak consumption and spending. Despite some signs of optimism, Greece's statistics service said the nation stayed in deflation territory in August, as consumer prices tumbled 1.3% from the same month a year earlier, prolonging a streak of negative data. Moreover, Greek industrial output plunged 8.1% on year in July.
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