ATHENS (Reuters) – The Greeks became more pessimistic about their economic prospects in December, since an underlying measurement on the morale of the companies fell to its lowest level since April 2014, when less than two weeks left for early elections scheduled for January 25. The leftist Syriza is head in the polls, sparking fears of a dispute with the lenders of the European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout terms for Athens and could lead Greece to leave the euro zone. Syriza has promised to cancel the austerity policies imposed as part of the bailout of Greece by 240,000 million euros, and said he would try to negotiate a debt reduction. The Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE for its acronym in English) said its overall index of confidence in the Greek economy fell to 98.9 points in December from 102.7 in November. The index is based on measurements of consumer confidence and readings about the economic outlook in sectors such as construction, manufacturing industry, retail and services. The index had shown a steady improvement since early 2014 and recorded their best reading in six years when the Greek economy began to emerge from a deep recession. It reached a maximum of 104.1 points in June 2014 after averaging 90.8 in 2013 and 80.3 in 2012. IOBE noted that there was a weakening of expectations in all sectors of the economy, except for construction, and Consumer confidence also showed a marked deterioration. “The period improvement in expectations stopped by political uncertainty emerged in December, given that national elections affected consumers and businesses, “said IOBE. Continued …
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