There had been some hopes for Greece following the Q3 GDP number which slowed the decline in the country's economy when it dropped by just 5%, following drops of 8% and 7.3% in Q1 and Q2. These may have to be doused following a report that Q4 GDP came in at a disappointing -7%. As Athensnews reports [7]: "The country's economic slump is headed towards a record annual plunge close to 7 percent in 2011, the fourth consecutive year of a deepening recession. After an official confirmation by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (Elstat) on Tuesday that GDP dropped 7 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2011, the economy has shrunk by an average of 6.8 percent. The latest quarterly contraction followed a slight slowdown of the depression in the preceding quarter, with GDP shrinking 5 percent due to the customary seasonal surge of tourist revenues in the summer." The full year drop was a record 6.8%, compared to the expected 6% projected in the 2012 budget. No comment there.
Keep in mind that the closer one gets to 0%, the slower the rate of decline gets usually - Newton's law of freefall does not quite apply to Keynesian economics. Regardless, this means that jobs are being lost left and right in this country of 11 million people: "The decline in the last quarter explains the surge in the jobless rate above 20 percent or 1.036 million unemployed in November." Well, at least the Greek labor participation rate is tracking that of the US, as this means that 4 million people oout of 11 work. On the other hand, at least Greece can boast that it has better employment stats than Spain with its 23% Q4 unemployment. In fact, Greece can boast a better industrial number than Germany when December output fell just 2.4% compared to Berlin's 2.7%. Finally don't forget that courtesy of recent riots, the favorable economic impact to local GDP will be massive - after all torching, pillaging and otherwise smashing windows is a Keynesian's wet dream.