The Greek economy, mired in a fifth year of recession, is continuing to shrink sharply.

Athens said Monday that its economy contracted for a ninth straight quarter in the April-to-June period, falling 6.2 percent after a slightly bigger drop earlier in the year.

Last week, the debt-ridden Greek government reported that the unemployment rate in the country had hit a new high above 23 percent.

The Greek economy has suffered as the country's international creditors have demanded it impose significant austerity measures to cut its deficit, in exchange for $295 billion in bailouts. Greek leaders have yet to complete a list of $14 billion in new spending cuts they need in order to secure release of a new portion of the aid in September, to avoid a default on its loans.

Greece's financial woes have become a fixture — in a negative way — of the U.S. presidential campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney as he seeks to unseat President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the November election. Romney told a rally over the weekend that the United States, without financial reforms, could become like Greece.

“There are some who are fearful that if we stay on the track we're on, we're going to end up like Greece, and we're going to have like Europe has, the chronic high unemployment, low wage growth, and fiscal calamity right at the door.”