(ANSAmed) – ATHENS, DECEMBER 19 – Unemployment in Greece will climb to 29.3% in 2013 and 31% in 2014, the German institute of macroeconomic forecasts IfW Kiel predicted on Tuesday.
The German institute’s economists, as daily Kathimerini reports, also forecast the economic contraction to come to 4% next year and spill over into 2014 at a 1% rate, against a European Commission prediction for 0.6% growth in 2014. In its revision of the Greek streamlining program, published in Brussels on Monday, the Commission had also been more optimistic in its estimates for the jobless rate, putting it at 24% for 2013 (from 23.6% in 2012) and 22.2% in 2014. By contrast, using International Labor Office (ILO) methodology, the IfW Kiel economists expect the unemployment rate to come in at 24.6% at end-2012 before soaring to 29.3% in 2013 – higher even than Spain’s 27.9% rate. A rise in employment usually trails the economic growth rate by at least six months. The IfW forecast mirrors that of the Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Labor, which expects unemployment to top 30% next year.
IfW also sees inflation in Greece reaching 1.1% this year and turning into deflation of 0.6% in 2013. (ANSAmed).