国际英语新闻：Greek economy shrinks by 2.5% in first quarter

ATHENS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Greek economy shrank by an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, the country's National Statistics Agency announced on Wednesday.

The decrease is higher than the earlier estimate of 2.3 percent which was released a month ago by the same agency. Greece, which has been hit hard by the global economic crisis since late 2009, has sunk deep into recession.

According to the latest forecasts of Greek and European Union experts, the Greek national economy will further shrink by around 4 percent this year, as the government cuts public expenses and wages and increases taxes to tackle a severe debt crisis.

Greece has a budget deficit of 13.6 percent of GDP which must be reduced to less than three percent over three years through harsh austerity measures and reforms, according to a Stability and Growth Program introduced this year.

The Greek government secured in May the financial aid of other European partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reaching up to 110 billion euros (132 billion U.S. dollars), but still the figures are bleak.

According to the data released on Wednesday by the Greek Statistics Agency, state consumption declined by nine percent, building activity by 20.2 percent in the first three months of 2010 in comparison to the first quarter of 2009. Industrial production reduced by 5.1 percent in April.