Hatzidakis to Reuters: Reducing public debt requires ‘a combination of fiscal prudence with a business-friendly approach’
FILE PHOTO: Minister for Νational Economy Costis Hatzidakis. ANA – MPA/ Alexandros Vlachos
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Meeting the target of reducing public debt requires “a combination of fiscal prudence with a business-friendly approach,” National Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said in an interview with Reuters news agency in Washington on Friday, according to a ministry announcement.
The interview was given on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings this week in the U.S. capital.
The news agency said the Greek finance ministry’s goal was to push down the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio from 162% this year to 149% in 2025 and 133.4% by 2028, at which point Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio “would be lower than Italy’s, which Rome has forecast at 135.8% this year, rising to 137.5% in 2027.” It also notes the plans for early repayment of bilateral debt in the next three years as a means of achieving this goal.
The news agency cited the minister’s statement that Greece had “…learned the lessons of the previous decade,” and was “living beyond its means,” as well as the need to maintain primary surpluses and a headline deficit, after debt service, “close to zero.”
It noted that Greece currently has one of the highest growth rates in Europe, with the government forecasting 2.2% growth for 2024 and the IMF forecasting 2.3%, and that this is “well above the weak overall 0.8% IMF growth forecast for the euro zone, where industrial economies including Germany and Italy are struggling.”
It also reported Hatzidakis’ response on whether the government could accommodate demands for higher wages from state school teachers and striking ferry port workers, saying it would depend on how that would affect the broader economy.
“We always try to satisfy requests coming from various groups, to the extent that these requests do not put at risk the execution of the budget and the target set for the country and for the Greek economy as a whole,” Hatzidakis was quoted as saying.
Source: ANA – MPA
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