ATHENS: Greek manufacturing shrank the most in more than a year in January, highlighting the economy’s weakness at a time the government is trying to break yet another deadlock in bailout talks.
Greece’s Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 46.6 last month from 49.3 in December, London-based IHS Markit said in a statement on Wednesday. The reading below the the key 50 mark that divides expansion from contraction is the lowest level since September 2015, when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was reelected after agreeing to a bailout harsher than the one he asked Greeks to reject in a referendum just two months earlier.
The government in Athens has failed to bridge difference with creditors on how to unlock further bailout aid, with the International Monetary Fund insisting that country won’t meet its 2018 primary budget surplus target without more pension cuts and tax increases.
