athens march 7 reuters  greeces economy expanded in octobertodecember last year with higher consumer spending and investment more than offsetting lower exports official data showed on tuesday seasonallyadjusted data showed gross domestic product gdp grew by 14 in the fourth quarter from an upwardly revised 04 growth rate in the third quarter data from the countrys statistics service showed household expenditure rose by 18 in the fourth quarter with investment increasing by 85 exports of goods and services including tourism fell by 08 in the fourth quarter for the full year the economy grew by 59 nonseasonally adjusted data showed since the lifting of covid restrictions last year the greek economy has recovered strongly thanks to robust tourism revenues and improving consumer spending and investment however soaring energy costs and inflation are seen curbing spending and investment this year with the government projecting growth will slow to about 20 in 2023 the positive carry over effect for this year will be higher to about 15 pointing to a growth of more than 2 national banks senior economist nikos magginas told reuters greece emerged in 2018 from a decadelong debt crisis that had forced it to sign up to three international bailouts its economic performance is pivotal as it aims to return to an investment grade rating later this year reporting by lefteris papadimas and angeliki koutantou editing by christina fincher