ATHENS: The Greek economy suffered a steep 6.9 percent year-on-year contraction in the second quarter, much worse than the 5.5 percent drop on an annual basis in the first, the state statistics agency ASE said on Friday.
ASE said the second quarter contraction was brought-on by a fall in domestic demand as austerity measures adopted by the government as part of its EU-IMF bailout really beginning to bite.
The agency said it could not provide quarter-to-quarter growth figures for technical reasons.
In the first quarter, Greece eked out growth of 0.2 percent from the previous three months, which the government saw seen as a positive development.
Greece is currently in its third year of recession, with government forecasting a 3.0 percent contraction this year.
In May, the European Union said the Greek economy would shrink by 3.5 percent with the public deficit also shooting back up to 9.5 percent of gross domestic product, even further away from the EU ceiling of 3.0 percent.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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