Greek economy flat last year, stats service says

Greek economic growth was flat last year, the country's statistics service ELSTAT said on Wednesday, releasing its first estimate of full-year 2016 gross domestic product.

It said gross domestic product in volume terms and measured at constant prices was 184.5 billion euros last year, unchanged from 2015.

ELSTAT's estimate, based on seasonally unadjusted data, showed the economy performed worse than the country's official creditors were expecting based on their recent forecasts.

The European Commission, in its winter forecast published in February, projected GDP growth of 0.3 percent in 2016 while the International Monetary Fund's upwardly revised estimate saw GDP growth of 0.4 percent.

Both expect Greece's economy to recover this year with GDP growing by 2.7 percent.

ELSTAT said its second estimate of 2016 GDP growth will be released on October 17. ...