Economy of Greece

A failure by Greece to reach an agreement with creditors could plunge the country into another "major recession," undermining the improving outlook in Central Europe, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday.

By Dimitra Manifava

The Greek economy could enjoy additional revenues of 250 million euros per year from olive oil exports if the commodity were utilized appropriately (i.e. not exported in bulk) and standardized in Greece with its own distinctive identity, according to a report by the National Bank of Greece.

Measured optimism that the market may have seen the worst yet generated early gains at the local bourse on Wednesday, but the changes imposed on the MSCI index setup regarding Greek chips left the benchmark virtually unchanged from the previous day at the end of the session.

Greece’s GDP decreased by 0.2 percent in the first quarter 2015 in relation to Q4 2014, according to figures released by the semi-autonomous EL.STAT statistical service. Nevertheless, GDP was up 0.3 percent on an annualized basis, compared with the same quarter of 2014.

May 13 Greece's biggest telecoms operator OTE posted on Wednesday a 27.6 percent drop in first quarter net profit, hurt by stricter tax treatment.

The Greek economy returned to recession in the first quarter of 2015, according to data by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) at noon on Wednesday. The figures show 0.2% recession. Simultaneously, the forecast for development has been cut to 0.3% as the European Commission in its spring assessment for Greece estimated 0.5% growth with the government expecting development at 1%.

Equity prices rose on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) on Wednesday, with the basic share price index up 0.98% at 835.57 points at 11 a.m. and turnover at 10.125 million euros.

The FTSE/ASE Large Cap index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks was up 1.51%and the FTSE/ASE Mid Cap index was up 1.63%.

The market?s fatigue with Athens?s inability to conclude an agreement with the country?s creditors and the growing prospect of a referendum that government officials are pointing to resulted in fresh losses during Monday?s bourse session as investors expected nothing concrete from the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels.

Stocks were almost equally split between gainers and losers in the Greek bourse?s last session of the week as the drop posted by the banks index was to a large extent offset by increases for other blue chips such as Coca-Cola HBC and OPAP, as well as mid-caps.

Traders hailed the government?s facing up to reality and conceding to the demands of the country?s creditors, as the Greek stock market enjoyed another day of healthy growth that came on an increased turnover too.