A “milder growth” rate for Greece in 2017 was the way a European Commission spokeswoman put it on Wednesday in revealing that the EU’s executive is also revising, downwards, estimates for the bailout-dependent country’s economy this year.
Spokeswoman Anika Breidhardt said recent figures pointed a slower growth rate for 2017 than initially anticipated by the Commission in February. She cited uncertainty of the fate of the second review of the Greek program “up until recently”.
An agreement, in principle, was achieved on the margins of an April 7 Eurogroup meeting in Malta between the increasingly embattled leftist-rightist Greek government coalition and the country’s institutional creditors.
Breidhardt also referred to the “fragile state” of the Greek economy and the need to conclude the review – now more than a year in delay – as soon as possible. As such, she welcomed the April 7 agreement, which remains to be translated into a staff-level agreement for presentation to Euro area finance ministers for their approval.
