Greece Forecasts First Round of Growth in Six Years

Greek lawmakers have built a daring prediction into their 2014 budget. They expect GDP to rise for the first time in six years, according to the BBC. Their projection was modest, a 0.6% uptick in 2014, but it beat the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s glum assessment, which predicts another year of painful contractions. Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras argued that the economy was poised for a turnaround. It had outperformed four out of five growth targets in 2013, he said. The one glaring shortfall was unemployment, which remained stuck at 27%. The projections come freighted with political consequences. Creditors like the IMF and the E.U. worry that if Greece runs a modest budget surplus, then they will be on the hook for more haircuts, as promised in a previous bailout agreement. [BBC]

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