Greece

Greek industrial output rose 3.1% in November compared to the same month a year earlier, after a downwardly revised 10.2% increase in October, data from statistics service ELSTAT showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A breakdown of index components showed manufacturing production rose 2.8% from the same month in 2022. Electricity output was up by 4.0% year-on-year, and mining production was up by 5.9%. Read more.

Greece’s credit rating was raised to investment grade by S&P Global Ratings — the first such move by one of the big three assessors since the country was shaken by a debt crisis more than a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. Friday’s decision puts Greece at BBB- with a stable outlook. S&P joins Japan’s Rating and Investment Information Inc., Germany’s Scope Ratings and Canada’s DBRS Morningstar in lifting the nation out of junk territory. All did so following June’s resounding re-election of reformist Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Laden with debt it couldn’t pay back, Greece nearly broke the eurozone a decade ago. Today, it is one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies, the New York Times reported. In a significant acknowledgment of the country’s turnaround, credit ratings agencies have been upgrading their appraisal of Greece’s debt, and opening the door for large foreign investors. The economy is growing at twice the eurozone average, and unemployment, while still high at 11 percent, is the lowest in over a decade. Tourists have returned in droves, fueling a construction frenzy and new jobs.

Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has been plunged into a multimillion-pound bankruptcy row with a Greek shipping tycoon, The Telegraph reported. Ms Staveley, who helped Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund acquire the Premier League club in 2021, has asked the High Court to prevent shipping magnate Victor Restis from forcing her into bankruptcy, new filings reveal. Mr Restis claims Ms Staveley has failed to repay a loan of more than £35m that dates back to over a decade.

Greece plans three bond reopenings via auctions by the end of June, as part of its 2023 borrowing programme, its debt agency (PDMA) said on Friday, Reuters reported. PDMA started auctioning bonds last year for up to 500 million euros ($545.50 million) to add liquidity to specific parts of Greek debt's yield curb. Under a bond auction schedule released on Friday, PDMA plans bond reopenings on April 19, on May 17 and on June 21. PDMA will announce its final decision to proceed with each scheduled auction and the auctioned amount a day before the auction date, it said in a statement.

Greece's economy should grow by 1.8% next year, at a slower pace than initially expected, as soaring energy costs and higher inflation are seen hurting tourism and curbing domestic demand, the government's 2023 final budget projected on Monday, Reuters reported. Next year's growth estimate was downwardly revised from the draft budget submitted to parliament in October. Authorities expect economic output to increase by 5.6% in 2022, better than forecast in the draft budget due to stronger tourism revenues.

While Greece's economy is growing at nearly twice the euro zone rate this year thanks to a robust rebound in tourism, young people are increasingly being priced out of the property market due to the energy crisis and inflation, soaring rents and a scarce supply of small flats, Reuters reported. Rising rents and unaffordability of housing is a problem across many industrialised economies, but in Greece it is particularly acute as living standards and household wealth have already been crippled by the debt crisis that began in 2009 and the years of austerity that followed.

Greece's exit on Saturday from the European Union's so-called enhanced surveillance framework for its economy ends 12 years of pain and allows the country greater freedom in policy making, its prime minister said, Reuters reported. Greece's economic performance and policies have been closely monitored under the framework since 2018 to ensure it implemented reforms promised under three international bailouts - totalling more than 260 billion euros ($261 billion) - from the European Union and the IMF between 2010 and 2015.