Finance minister: No new lockdown
Finance Minister Christos Staikouras on Friday reiterated that the government will not impose a new lockdown and that the country’s cash reserves were secure and sufficient to meet any possible crises.
“We will be at side of society for as long as it takes in 2022 as well, both on the pandemic front and for the energy crisis,” the minister told SKAI radio.
Staikouras noted that the government will have disbursed €43.3 billion in social supports from 2020 to 2022 and stressed that the money borrowed by the country was raised on very favourable conditions.
He said that the state budget’s primary deficit will reach 7% of GDP, or €13 billion, this year, while the country’s public debt will reach 200% of GDP or €350 billion.
Staikouras said he expected that Europe will begin a fiscal adjustment in 2022, without austerity measures but through economic growth and that fiscal rules will come back in force from 2023. [AMNA]
