Economic development

China's economy experienced robust growth in the first quarter of 2024, defying market expectations and signaling resilience amid challenges in the property market. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the world's second-largest economy expanded by 5.3% on an annual basis, surpassing forecasts for GDP growth of 4.6%.

Development Minister Kostas Skrekas, addressing the Panhellenic Exporters Association on Wednesday, said that sustainable growth rates cannot be ensured without expanding the country's production base, underlining the effort being made to sustain the growth rate over time.

Shutdown announcements for the factories of the Yioula glassworks firm in Aigaleo in Athens and of EVIEN in Thessaloniki and Kilkis in northern Greece within less than a week served as an alarming message about the risk of deindustrialization.

The European Union must act fast to prevent the deindustrialization of Europe, the president of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises, Dimitris Papalexopoulos, warns in an interview with Kathimerini.

BELGRADE - Serbia's real GDP growth in Q2 2023 was at 1.7 pct y-o-y, in line with a flash estimate, and real GDP growth for Q1 2023 was revised upwards from 0.7 pct to 0.9 pct y-o-y, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) said on Friday.

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic on Wednesday chaired a session of a council coordinating activities and measures aimed at GDP growth, which said Serbia's 2023 economic growth should reach 2.5 pct.

Brnabic said it was important to continue a trend of economic growth in Q3 and Q4.

In 50 years, the Eurozone, measured as a single economy, will be the fourth largest in the world. Germany, individually, will drop from the current fourth place in the world to fifth in 2050 and ninth in 2075. China, the United States and India will be clearly ahead of everyone else.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras on Tuesday said there were encouraging signs from the development of micro-funding in Greece.

Greek economic growth will remain robust, with real GDP growth projected at 2.2% in 2023 and 1.9% in 2024, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Academics from Istanbul University have found a solution for the mucilage problem in the Marmara Sea with a mixture obtained from beneficial bacteria.