Majority of goods remain off-limits for most Greeks

Few Greeks can afford to splash out on items beyond their daily needs, according to GfK's consumer sentiment survey for the last quarter of 2016 that was released on Thursday.

Two main conclusions can be drawn from the survey: The first is that the increase in gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2016 has not had any positive impact on Greeks' everyday lives - for the time being at least - while the second is that there is a large difference in consumer sentiment with other European economies where there was a nine-year high recorded in Q4 2016.

The GfK data showed that the financial expectations index may have risen by 3.3 percentage points from the third quarter, but its reading remains negative all the same at -33.8 points, as pessimistic estimates outnumber optimistic ones. GfK notes that although the index posted a small rise, it remains at particularly...