Hellenic Statistical Authority

After the jump in exports in March, there was a correction in April, as Hellenic Statistical Authority figures yesterday showed a 5.4 percent reduction on an annual basis excluding fuel. When the volatile element of fuel is included exports add up to 2.32 billion euros, up 9.7 percent on April 2016.

Greek economy has paid a heavy price for the delay in the completion of the second review of the country's third bailout and this is reflected in the official data for first-quarter gross domestic product, which contracted 0.5 percent year-on-year according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).

Greek exports posted double-digit growth both in March and in the first quarter of the year, but they were outpaced by imports in both cases, sending the trade deficit to 6.47 billion euros in the January-March period, against 4.47 billion in the first quarter of last year, according to Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data issued on Monday.

After months of to and fro, claim and counter-claim, we now know that Greece's primary budget surplus for 2016 came in way above its target, leaving us with another Greek crisis paradox to ponder.

The state's fiscal performance last year has exceeded even the most ambitious targets, as the primary budget surplus as defined by the Greek bailout program, came to 4.19 percent of gross domestic product, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos announced on Friday. It came to 7.369 billion euros against a target for 879 million euros, or just 0.5 percent of GDP.

Last year's primary surplus ranged between 3.8 and 4.1 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Ministry sources said ahead of the official announcement of the fiscal figures on Friday by the Hellenic Statistical Authority. The target had been for 0.5 percent of GDP.

The growth momentum that construction activity in Greece had built in the second half of 2016 was brought to a halt in January, when it posted a drop, according to the data released on Wednesday by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).

The major increase recorded in exports in January proved just a blip, as in February they posted a decline (when fuel products are excluded), according to figures released on Friday by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).

Greece's headline consumer price index rose to 1.3 percent year-on-year, from 1.2 percent in the previous month, when it emerged from a protracted deflation trend, according to figures released on Friday by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).

The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) announced on Friday that Greece's industrial output rose 7.2 percent in January compared to the same month a year ago, after an upwardly revised 2.5 percent increase in December.

Looking at index components, manufacturing production grew 1.1 percent from the same month in 2015, while mining output fell 5.7 percent.