Staikouras reiterates optimism about country’s economic prospects
Greece’s target to achieve a 3.6% economic growth rate this year is fully feasible and realistic, the Finance Minister has told MPs.
Speaking in Parliament during a debate on the country’s medium-term fiscal strategy for 2022 to 2025, Christos Staikouras said that “developments inspire a realistic optimism that we can make it. We know where we are, we know where we want to go. We are working hard for this, with our sights focused on the future.”
He added that his ministry would not revise its forecasts for 2021, despite positive signs, until a clearer picture was available for the first half of the year that takes into account the uncertainty on the health front and the high volatility in external macroeconomic developments.
Staikouras said the government has set ambitious but realistic goals for the coming years, including: improving the quality of wealth through a significant increase in investments and exports; exiting enhanced supervision status in 2022; bringing non-performing loans in bank portfolios down to single-digit levels by 2022; achieving a fiscal improvement in 2022, and realistic primary surpluses from 2023.
He also said he expected Greece to obtain an investment-grade rating by the first half of 2023.
[ANA-MPA]
