(Bloomberg) -- Greece's economy expanded for a third straight quarter for the first time in more than a decade, providing a foundation for the country's attempts to exit its bailout program next year.
Gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent in the three months through September after expanding a revised 0.8 percent in the previous quarter, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said in a statement on Monday. From a year earlier, GDP grew 1.3 percent.
Greece's government and representatives of the country's creditor institutions on Saturday agreed on a set of economic overhauls the country must undertake in exchange for fresh loans. The payout, supplemented by more bond market forays next year, will help the government build a cash buffer as it seeks to prepare for its bailout exit when the current program expires in August 2018.
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While the third straight quarterly expansion provides some economic stability as the government tries to make a clean break from its bailouts, the slowdown in the pace of growth compared with the second quarter will make it harder to hit its 1.6 percent full-year growth forecast this year.
“To reach the 1.6 percent growth target for 2017 as a whole, the Greek economy would now have to expand by 1.2 percent over the last quarter of the year,” said Bloomberg economist Maxime Sbaihi. “That's too high a bar: an expansion of half that pace is more likely in the fourth quarter. It would bring the annual growth rate to 1.4 percent only -- closer but still below the goal.”
The third-quarter expansion was led by 5 percent boost in exports, including a 9.8 percent increase in service exports, which includes the country's crucial tourist sector. Consumption fell 0.1 percent, while investment decreased 6.1 percent in the quarter.
--With assistance from Andre Tartar Joel Rinneby and Maxime Sbaihi (Economist)
To contact the reporter on this story: Marcus Bensasson in Athens at mbensasson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Kevin Costelloe, Andrew Atkinson
©2017 Bloomberg L.P.
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