ATHENS – Greece is among the economic ‘winners’ of 2022, with the best overall performance among 34 mostly rich countries, according to an analysis by “The Economist” based on five key indicators. The countries were ranked on the basis of GDP, inflation, inflation breadth (the number of products that increased by more than 2 pct), stockmarket performance and government debt.

Other countries of the European South, such as Portugal and Spain, were also strong performers, while Germany ranked low in 30th place, while Estonia and Latvia were ranked last.

Greece’s GDP increased 2.2 pct between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the third quarter of 2022, while that of Italy was 1.8 pct, Spain had 1.5 pct and Germany 1.3 pct. In Estonia, GDP shrank 3.1 pct over the same period.

Consumer prices increased 7.8 pct in Greece in the first 10 months of 2022 and 82.4 pct of products increased by more than 2 pct. Inflation in Italy was 10.8 pct but its breadth was 64.7 pct. In France, inflation was 5.6 pct and inflation breadth was 76.5 pct. In Germany, inflation was 10 pct and inflation breadth was 88.2 pct, while Estonia had the highest inflation (16.7 pct with inflation breadth of 94.1 pct).

Greece was one of the few countries where stock market prices rose (0.8 pct) over the first 11 months of 2022, with stockmarkets nosediving as much as 15 pct worldwide, while Greece was also a champion in the reduction of net government debt, which fell by 16 pct as a percentage of GDP, while in other countries it increased or fell by much smaller amounts.