The government is going full speed ahead for another additional budget of 2 billion euros.
By Chrysostomos Tsoufis
“It’s like being in a storm and the wind is constantly changing from east to west, to north, to south”… This is not the memoir of a seafaring sailor on the deck of a ship. It is about how he tried to describe the Theodoros Skylakakis on SKAI radio the conditions in which this year the fiscal policy as in the Ministry of Finance they are struggling with the waves of uncertainty.
The result of all this is thatThe government is going full speed ahead in September for yet another supplementary budget, the second in the last 5 months. According to the Deputy Minister of Finance, the supplementary budget – which is expected to be at the level of the first and at 2 billion euros – is necessary because on the one hand there is significant increase in revenue and on the other hand it is observed significant need to increase spending, as natural gas prices remain at unprecedented levels.
The government is not going to change the target for primary deficit at 2% of GDP, so whatever extra revenue is generated will go back to the citizens. Given that the government’s previous planning was based on a natural gas price of 100 euros/Mwh and now the price of it is “stuck” above 200 eurosone understands that the lion’s share of the additional revenue will be utilized for the subsidizing electricity bills households and businesses.
The resulting fiscal space will depend, among other things, according to Mr. Skylakakis, on the course of tourist revenues and natural gas prices until September, but also how much Greek exports will be affected by the slowdown and recession that will…invade the economies of the European partners.
How the additional fiscal space will be used will be decided and announced by the Prime Minister at the TIF. Based on the current data on the table they are fuel pass 3, a new accuracy check, heating allowance increase while the Prime Minister’s promise to SKAI for a political solution to the issue of retroactive pensioners.
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