The Statistical Office reported that both final consumption and gross investment contributed positively to growth last year as a whole, while the contribution of the external trade balance was negative. The external trade surplus fell to €961 million from €3.31 billion the year before, due to imports growing faster than exports and weaker terms of trade in all four quarters of the year.

For last year, national and international institutions forecast economic growth to reach between 5% and 6%. For this year, economic growth is projected to slow more markedly to between 0.5% and 1.8% of GDP, according to all institutions' forecasts to date.

Source: SURS