Q1 data stir market worries over growth and debt sustainability

The first-quarter data present some very worrying signs for the Greek economy in 2019, clearly putting the attainment of the target of 2.3 percent growth at risk this year, analysts tell Kathimerini.

The meager 1.3 percent growth recorded on an annual basis in the January-March period illustrates that the economic expansion remained weak six months after the end of the bailout programs and at the lowest level of the last couple of years, also imperiling the long-term sustainability of the national debt.

"The quarterly GDP data in Greece tend to be volatile and subject to substantial revisions. Still, the Q1 numbers raise concerns and point to risks that the weak growth in the rest of the eurozone may have also started affecting Greece's already weak recovery," says Athanasios Vamvakidis, managing director and head of European G10 Foreign Exchange Strategy for Bank of...