WSJ assesses, in a dispatch from Athens and Berlin, that crisis-ridden Greece faces two years of more recession magnified by sharp budget cuts and reforms mandated by a last-minute 86-billion-euro bailout deal with international creditors.

The NYC-based financial paper estimates that the country’s economy is expected to shrink 2.3 percent this year in the wake of months of political turmoil immediately before and in the time after the January 2015 election.

Next year, the Greek economy is projected to contract 1.3 percent.

If predictions prove true… the Greek economy is expected to return to growth in 2017 (2.7 percent) and 3.1 percent in 2018.

Meanwhile, Reuters on Wednesday reported that Germany’s finance ministry had raised questions about a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreed between Greece and its international lenders but that Berlin was not rejecting the bailout plan for Athens.