Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras defended the fiscal and economic policy of the Mitsotakis government since July 2019 and the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, on Wednesday 1 September, during a dialogue with the European Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee.
“The Greek economy has shown remarkable resilience”, Mr Staikouras said, pointing to growth projections of close to 4.5% of national GDP for 2021. For 2022, he hoped that his country would emerge from the close supervision phase put in place at the end of the 3rd macroeconomic rescue plan for Greece and that the level of non-performing loans (NPLs) would fall below 10%. For 2023, Greece’s objective is to achieve a “satisfactory” level of primary budget surplus (excluding debt service) and to return the public debt rating to ‘investment’ grade.
Mr Staikouras also assured that the available EU funds, i.e. 70 billion euros over the period 2021-2027 from the EU budget and the European Recovery Plan, would be put to good use. A specific unit has been set up within his Ministry to monitor spending and compliance with the targets set under the Greek recovery plan, which has already received four billion euros in pre-financing.
Hélène Laporte (Identity and Democracy, France) and Michiel Hoogeven (ECR, Netherlands) asked him about the Greek public debt, which reached 205.6% of the national GDP at the end of 2020.
“The debt is sustainable”, Mr Staikouras said, citing several advantages: the current very low interest rates, the high liquidity available to Athens, the favourable structure of Greek debt and the fact that 70% of it is held by institutional investors.
Eero Heinäluoma (S&D, Finland), Claude Gruffat (Greens/EFA, France) and Dimitrios Papadimoulis (The Left, Greece) wanted to know more about the social consequences of the health crisis in Greece, where unemployment is still at 16% of the active population.
The Minister said that the government’s policy had helped maintain employment despite the loss of hours worked. “We believe that unemployment will continue to fall” thanks to the economic recovery and reforms, he added. He cited the recent assistance given to families and businesses affected by the severe fires this summer. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)