Business cycle

The return of Greeks who left for abroad is one of the biggest challenges for the next four years, as the better prospects that the Greek economy shows today compared to the previous decade are creating the conditions to limit the phenomenon of human capital leakage from the country, commonly known as the brain drain. However, the evidence shows that the expected brain gain is still slow.

The International Monetary Fund sees Greece returning to fiscal consolidation, with systematic achievement of primary surpluses and debt deleveraging in the coming years, per its spring fiscal report, published on Wednesday.

Alternate Finance Minister Thodoros Skylakakis referred to the bright prospects of the Greek economy at an event for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Greece 2.0, held in Kozani: "In the coming years, Greece - and Western Macedonia - is sure to experience an economic and investment boom, as long as the current policy of reforms and fiscal stability continues," he pointed out.

China's factory output and retail sales remained weak in May, official data showed yesterday, with tepid demand and lingering COVID restrictions putting a damper on growth in the world's second-largest economy.    

Ljubljana – Driven by stimulus-fuelled domestic spending, Slovenia’s economy expanded by 8.1% in real terms in 2021 after a 4.2% contraction the year before, far outpacing all forecasts. In nominal terms it was up 10.9%, show preliminary data released by the Statistics Office on Monday. In the fourth quarter GDP grew by a seasonally adjusted 5.4% year-on-year.

Germany's economy shrank at a smaller rate in the fourth quarter of last year than originally thought, despite the blows leveled by supply chain woes and the pandemic, official data showed on Feb. 25.

Gross domestic product in Europe's top economy slipped 0.3 percent in the last three months of 2021 compared to the previous quarter, the federal statistics office Destatis said.

The Bundesbank has said the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic risked pushing the German economy - Europe's largest - into a technical recession before staging a recovery from the second quarter.

Romania's economy will advance beyond expectations this year, between 6% and 9%, according to latest estimates by international credit rating agencies, Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Tuesday. "I say that everything that was more complicated has passed, it is true that there are these adjustments, after this time, and every economy resists more or less.

The so-called "accordion lockdown" may be testing the patience and stamina of entrepreneurs, who are forced to revise their plans and operations every now and then, but at least it secures some turnover, so it is better than a complete months-long lockdown, say economists who have observed its international application in the last few months.

Economists at Greek banks expect the economy to contract between 10.5% and 15% in the first quarter of this year, with the extent of the recession to be determined by how long retail stores remain open, they say. However, the economy will stage a strong recovery in the latter half of the year, taking the sum of 2021 well into positive territory.