Greece's GDP to shrink by 4% in 2013, recover in 2014 

(MENAFN) Bank of Greece (BoG) Governor, George Provopoulos, stated that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) will contract by nearly 4 percent next year, reported Xinhua News.

Provopoulos said that 2013 will mark the last year for recession in the country, as positive growth is expected to return in 2014 and to become stronger.

He added that by then, the government would have reduced fiscal problems and carried out many structural reforms.

On the other hand, the governor stressed that the reason behind the country's fiscal crisis was not only financial; as political, social and institutional factors played a major role in the current situation.

He noted that Athens was incapable of effectively controlling its public deficits and debts on one hand, and on the other hand, it lost competitiveness, adding that between 2000 and 2009, the accumulative loss of competitiveness was 32 percent, a loss that needs to be recovered through structural reforms.

Provopoulos stated that old-structured economy and tax evasion were two key factors in the country's sovereign crisis, as they were estimated to have resulted in the loss of nearly 25 percent of the country's GDP.