Trade with Greece
57
highest value of the indicator since April 2015. As
far as individual sectors are concerned, there has
been some slight improvement in Services,
Construction, and Retail Trade, while no signifi-
cant change is recorded in Industry.
In December, the Turnover Index in Industry rose
by 13.5%, mainly because of an increase in the
sales of manufacturing industries by 15.5%.
Moreover, the assessment of the current level of
business activity in Services showed a slight pos-
itive change, as did the predictions for short-term
demand. Similarly, forecasts regarding activity in
Retail Trade in the next few months show a slight
improvement, while the index for inventories, as
well as the –negative– balance of expected
orders and demand remained unchanged.
Improvement of economic climate
In turn, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises
(SEV) reports the following:
• Improvement of the economic climate in
December 2016. The relevant indicator rose to
94.6 points from 92.4 the previous month,
while the average index of the fourth quarter is
significantly higher, as compared to the same
quarter of 2015.
• Increase of industrial production and exports.
Non-oil manufacturing production was on the
rise for a sixth consecutive month in November
2016 (+4.1%), while increased by +5.6% on
average in October-November 2016 (y-o-y)
and by +3.7% in the 11 months from January
to November 2016. Non-oil exports of goods
show a similar trend in terms of volume (+14%
in Nov 2016, + 9.6% on average in Oct-Nov
2016 and +5.7% in January-November 2016).
• Strengthening of the volume of retail sales
excluding fuel. The downward trend from the
summer of 2015 came to a halt in Q3 2016,
while in October 2016 the indicator continued
to rise and in the period from October 2016 to
January 2017 appears slightly positive.
• Slowing deflation. In December 2016 prices
rose by 1% compared to the previous month.
Although this hike is due mainly to fuel
(+2.5%), the overall evolution of prices seems
to support the emergence of higher demand in
the economy. Actually, in January inflation
stood at 1.2%.
• Steady decline of unemployment. The unem-
ployment rate fell to 23% in October 2016 (from
23.1% in the previous month and 24.5% in
