Greek Investment Surge Helps Economy Just About Avoid Stagnation

(Bloomberg) -- Greek economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter, with a long-awaited surge in investment ensuring the country just managed to avoid stagnation.

Gross domestic product rose 0.1 percent, down from a revised 0.4 percent in the previous quarter, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said Monday. The economy grew 1.4 percent in 2017, marking only its second full-year expansion for a decade.

In the fourth quarter, investment grew almost 28 percent from the three months through September, bringing total expansion for 2017 to 9.7 percent, according to Bloomberg calculations. Consumption fell 0.3 percent in the quarter.

While the annual growth was the highest since the economic crisis wiped out a quarter of Greek GDP, it fell short of the government's forecast of 1.6 percent. That means fraught negotiations ahead over debt relief and Greece's post-bailout arrangement, with the International Monetary Fund already skeptical that the country can sustain the medium-term growth rates needed to meet its fiscal targets.

Read more: Greece Has Until June to Implement Last Batch of Bailout Actions

Still, recent surveys offer encouragement that Greece's growth may pick up at the start of 2018. A gauge of manufacturing rose to its highest in more than 17 years in February, while economic sentiment reached the strongest since 2014.

--With assistance from Andre Tartar and Joel Rinneby

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

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