Austerity Finally Working For Greece

For the first time since what seems like Thermopylae, Greece has become a font of good news. Relatively good news, to be sure, and relative to Greece, which has been synonymous with only bad news for 10 years now, but still: Real people are lending it money again, and not just Angela Merkel. Its banks are cutting their non-performing debt twice as fast as expected—fast enough to get rid of all of them within our lifetimes, maybe. And now, this:

Gross domestic product increased by 0.5% in the April-to-June period from the previous quarter, compared with a 0.4% growth in the first quarter, data from Greece’s statistics service Elstat showed.

Of course, this is Greece, and there are still hiccups. And disputes over how to count things.

“On a quarterly basis, public consumption and exports have been the main drivers of growth,” said Eurobank economist Platon Monokroussos. Concerns remain over the lack of new investment on which durable, long-term growth depends, Mr. Monokroussos said.

According to the last budget forecasts, Greece’s economy is officially expected to expand by 1.8% in 2017. The government’s projections are lower than those from the European Commission, which sees the crisis-struck economy rebounding by 2.1% this year.

Greece’s Economy Grows Some More [WSJ]