INSTANT VIEW 2-Greece in first recession in 16 years

ATHENS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Greece's economy entered its first recession in 16 years in the first quarter of 2009 and has not recovered since, revised figures from Eurostat and the country's statistics service (NSS) showed on Friday. The economy has suffered quarterly GDP contractions since the last three months of 2008. Two consecutive quarterly contractions in output mean an economy is in recession. The 250 billion euro economy contracted 0.3 percent in the third quarter of 2009 after shrinking by a revised 0.1 percent in the second quarter, the NSS flash estimate showed. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting the economy to contract at a quarterly 0.8 percent clip in the third quarter. *************************************************************** KEY FIGURES (in pct) Q3 2009 Q2 2009 Q1 2009 Q4 2008 GDP growth (y/y) -0.3 -0.1 -0.5 -0.7 GDP growth (q/q) -1.6 -1.2 -0.5 +0.7 ----------------------------------------------------------- source:NSS/Eurostat NATIONAL STATISTICS SERVICE "The revision of quarterly growth rates, in combination with the revision of the accounts of general government and the evaluation of most recent sectoral indicators, led to new estimates for the first two quarters of 2009." DIEGO ISCARO, IHS GLOBAL INSIGHT "The sharp revisions to back data were the main reason behind the significant disparity between the consensus forecast and the actual data. "The figures show that the Greek economy is going through a very difficult period and, unfortunately, we do not see an easy way out. "Unemployment is rising, credit conditions remain tight, and taxes are going up. All these factors will weigh down on consumer expenditure during the remaining of the year. "Moreover, inflation, which had been trending downwards during the first semester, is rising again, which will put consumers under further pressure. Larger inflation differentials vis-a-vis other Eurozone countries, the relative strength of the euro will also dampen export growth." NIKOS MAGGINAS, NATIONAL BANK: "Economic activity continued shrinking in the third quarter, mainly because of continued falls of investment and private consumption. The significant drop in imports is the only factor which has a positive contribution to GDP, offsetting the negative impact from a considerable decline in exports. "Economic activity is expected to continue declining in the last quarter of the year as most conjuctural indicators do not show signs of recovery. "We expect GDP to shrink by 1.2 percent for the full year of 2009." (Reporting by Harry Papachristou; Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander, Tatiana Fragou and Angeliki Koutantou) Keywords: GREECE GDP/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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