According to a Eurostat survey published on Wednesday, Greece’s economic index edged higher this month, with the national ESI reading for August at 99 points, its highest in 12 months.

Although it has lifted from 98.2 points in July improving people’s confidence in the services sector at the height of the tourism season there is still a long way to go.

The service confidence indicator climbed to 22.9 points this month from 17.4 points in July, while consumer confidence which also played a great part in the economy’s improvement lifted from -61.5 points in July to -57 points in August.

Numbers concerning industry, retail commerce, and construction headed lower with considerable declines.

Most Greek stocks gave up ground on Thursday, as Kathimerini reports but the benchmark edged higher again on gains by power-packing blue chips including ADMIE, Mytilineos and Alpha Bank.

The ATHEX general index ended at 825.48 points, adding 0.22 percent to Wednesday’s 823.65 points.

The large-cap FTSE-26 index expanded 0.38 percent to 2,170.62 points, but the banks index fell 0.09 percent.

In total 34 stocks advanced, 59 declined and 30 stayed put.

Turnover came to 47.2 million euros, up from Wednesday’s 38.8 million.

Meanwhile in Nicosia the general index of the Cyprus Stock Exchange slipped 0.31 percent lower to close at 76.03 points.