DEVELOPMENTS AND PROSPECTS OF THE GREEK ECONOMY IN 2018 2017 marked the return of the Greek economy to positive growth after several years of recession, with the exception of 2014. GDP growth is expected to come to 1.6% in 2017 and to pick up further to 2.4% and 2.5%, respectively, in 2018 and 2019.
Italian firms’ financial leverage is high by international standards: in 2012 the ratio of financial debt to the sum of that debt and shareholders’ equity at market prices was 49 per cent in Italy against 34 per cent in France and the United States, 39 per cent in Germany and 42 per cent in the United Kingdom and in the euro area as a whole.