Greece got a credit rating upgrade on Friday as news of growth and decrease in unemployment was praised by Eurogroup President Mario Centeno and more recently by OECD chief Angel Gurria, during a press conference with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras.
“I would like to congratulate you, your administration and the whole of Greece for an impressive stabilisation effort and one of the most ambitious reform packages we have seen at the OECD in recent times,” said Gurria. “This is starting to bear fruit.”
According to OECD estimates Greek GDP is expected to grow by 2% this year and 2.3% next year at a rate above the Eurozone average.
DBRS Ratins Limited (DBRS) announced that it upgraded Greece’s main credit ratings from CCCto B and maintained the positive outlook.
DBRS also upgraded the country’s Short-Term Foreign and Local Currency - Issuer Ratings from R-5 to R-4 and maintained the stable trend.
According to the agency, the upgrade is due to the strong reform progress made by Greece since 2010, the good signs of economic recovery in 2017 and three consecutive years of fiscal over-performance. Moreover, political dangers have been reduced, the third programme review has been concluded and the fourth programme review is underway, it said.
Eurogroup President Mario Centeno congratulated Greece for returning to growth and expressed the need for Greece to take full ownership of the reforms as the long-term prospect of growth is of paramount importance.
"Growth has returned to Greece but this will be a long process. I am very confident that Greece will be able to achieve it. It is in the interest of the Greek society to achieve economic growth in a sustainable way," he said.
