Above her average euro zone and of the EU, growth in Greece is projected to remain flat in 2022, 2023 and 2024, according to the European Commission’s spring economic forecasts released today.

Specifically, for her Hellas the Commission predicts growth of 5.9% in 2022, 2.4% in 2023 and 1.9% in 2024.

For eurozonepredicts growth of 3.5% in 2022, 1.1% in 2023 and 1.6% in 2024, compared to EU growth of 3.5% in 2022, 1% in 2023 and 1.7% in 2024.

It is noted that the Commission’s forecasts for the growth of the Greek economy are revised upwards for 2022 and 2023, compared to those of February (5.5% and 1.2% were respectively the forecast for 2022) and revised down to 2024 (2.2% was forecast in February).

Regarding inflation, the Commission estimates that in Greece it was 9.3% in 2022 and predicts that it will decrease to 4.2% in 2023 and 2.4% in 2024. For the Eurozone, the Commission estimates that inflation stood at 8.4% in 2022 and is forecast to decline to 5.8% in 2023 and 2.8% in 2024. In the EU inflation stood at 9.2% in 2022 and is forecast to decline to 6 .7% in 2023 and to 3.1% in 2024.

Greece’s general government deficit is expected to decline further to -0.6% of GDP in 2024, implying a primary surplus of 2.5%. In 2022 the fiscal deficit stood at -2.3% of GDP and is projected to decrease to -1.3% of GDP in 2023.

In the Eurozone, the fiscal deficit averaged -3.6% of GDP in 2022 and is projected to decrease to -3.2% of GDP in 2023 and -2.4% of GDP in 2024.

The public debt-to-GDP ratio fell sharply in 2022 in Greece, mainly due to nominal GDP growth. The ratio is expected to decline further to 160.2% of GDP in 2023 and 154.4% in 2024, helped by primary surpluses and economic growth.