At a press conference on Monday 23 April, Margaritis Schinas, head spokesperson of the European Commission, confirmed that for the third year in a row, Athens had exceeded its budgetary target, registering a primary budgetary surplus (not including servicing the debt) of 4.2% of GDP in 2017, against a target of 1.75% of GDP.
The figures are good news for Greece, which is to exit the third bailout plan in August this year (see other article). Readers may recall that Athens must register an annual primary budgetary surplus of 3.5% of GDP between 2018 and 2022, then an average of 2% of GDP up to 2060, as agreed at the meeting of the Eurogroup on 15 June of last year (see EUROPE 11810).
The result comes in the framework of the publication, by the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat), of the government debt and deficit ratios for 2017, on the same day. Eurostat reveals that between 2016 and 2017, government deficit fell from 1.5% to 0.9% of GDP in the Eurozone, with a similar drop in the EU (1.0% in 2017, from 1.6% in 2016). Government debt fell from 89.0% to 86.7% of GDP in the Eurozone from 2016 to 2017, and by 1.7% in the EU (81.6% of GDP in 2017 from 83.3% of GDP in 2016). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)