According to the EU's statistics office, Eurostat, Greece's economy exited recession from the first quarter of 2014, recording a feeble 0.8 percent growth to reach 179 billion euros in the first such uptick in five years.
Meanwhile, the country's sovereign debt stands at a whopping 300 billion.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has called for the country’s creditors — a group that includes the European Central Bank, other European Union countries and the International Monetary Fund — to line up further financial support and to forgive about one-third of the nation’s debt.
The creditors are ready to help out but they demand the implementation of a string of hard-hitting austerity measures in exchange for rescue money.
The Greek government then put the matter to a nationwide referendum, but more than 61 percent of those who voted on Sunday said a resounding “no” to the creditors’ demands for more austerity to keep aid flowing.
