Greek economy shrinks 4.5 percent in 12 months: official

ATHENS: The Greek economy shrank by 4.5 percent in the last 12 months, official data showed on Friday pointing to the trauma the country has undergone since an election and emergence of a debt crisis.

Gross domestic product contracted by 1.1 percent in the third quarter from output in the second quarter, data from the ESA statistics agency said.

A year ago the Socialist party won power and soon revealed that the country was in an undeclared recession.

This accelerated concern on bond markets about the state of Greek public finances, resulting in near insolvency, deep crisis and splits within the eurozone, and the creation of International Monetray Fund and European Union efforts to rescue Greece and underpin other struggling eurozone countries.

The government has had to introduce radical austerity measures and deep reforms of the economy.

The agency said that the big contraction of the economy reflected mainly a fall in household consumption and investment.

The agency stressed that its figures were provisional while it waits for a revision of the national accounts for 2009.

The European Union statistics office Eurostat is to publish on Monday revised data for the Greek public deficit which are expected to show an upward revision for 2009 to more than 15.0 percent of GDP from 13.6 percent.