The European Union estimates that the Greek economy will contract by 8-9% this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is much higher than the projections made by the Greek government.
Officials in Brussels revealed that forecast on Wednesday 8 April, during a conference call with the finance ministers of the Greek government regarding the assessment of the Greek economy.
A day earlier, Paolo Gentiloni, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, had told the Eurogroup teleconference that the recession in Greece would amount to a 10% contraction in 2020.
The Greek Finance Minister, Christos Staikouras, had recently argued that GDP in Greece would only contract by 3-4% this year, although he later spoke in the Greek Parliament about a “very deep recession.”
The government has based its rather more favourable forecast on the fact that Greek GDP is mainly based on consumption, which has not suffered as heavy a blow as have investments; there is also the fact that – tourism aside – Greece’s economy does not rely to a great extent on exports.
