Brussels, 06/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - With the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, officially calling on Monday 6 October for a vote of confidence from the national parliament, his government has revealed its draft 2015 budget, which takes account of the fact that the economic indicators have turned to green and taxes have fallen.
For its growth forecasts, Greece has stuck to the projections of the 'troika' (European Commission, ECB and IMF). Growth will be 0.6% this year and 2.9% in 2015. In its final monitoring report, the Commission predicts that Greek GDP will stand at 3.7% in 2016. The primary budgetary surplus (not including servicing of the debt) is expected to stand at 2% of GDP this year, according to the government, rising to 2.9% of GDP next year, which is slightly below the target of 3%. The deficit is expected to be 0.2% of GDP.
Public debt and unemployment are expected to fall, with debt of 168% of GDP in 2015, compared to 175% in 2014, according to the draft budget. The unemployment rate is expected to fall to 22.5%, which is two percentage points lower than this year. Various taxes are expected to follow suit, such as the tax on heating oil and the solidarity tax. VAT of 13% on catering services will remain in place. The budget also brings in flexibility for various social contributions and grace periods for citizens who owe money to the State.
The government is also planning to issue bonds of seven years and ten years. In theory, the country is due to leave the Eurozone bailout plan by the end of the year and also hopes to waive the final tranches of loans from the IMF, whose assistance is theoretically set to continue until the first quarter of 2016. Recently, a senior EU official explained that the country's access to the markets was still difficult.
The national parliament will hold its vote of confidence at around midnight on Friday. As stressed by the Greek press, the government consists of 154 MPs, but requires the support of just 50% of the MEPs present during the vote. With the absence of nine MPs from the Golden Dawn party, the government would need just 146 votes, which it is expected to get. (EL)