Staikouras: About 1 billion in civil servants, low paid, positions of responsibility, uniformed, faculty members, in early 2024

“At the beginning of 2024, civil servants will permanently receive assistance of the order of 800-900 million euros in total, approximately 1 billion” said the Minister of Finance, Christos Staikouras, speaking to the First Program 91.6 and 105.8.

Noting that this year for the first time after several years of completely fixed salaries, civil servants have an increase of 200 million euros from the abolition of the solidarity contribution and about 80% from the non-contribution of 1% to their coffers. This is the first 280 million euros that public servants will already see in their wallets this year, the Minister said, adding that there are social groups among public servants, such as doctors who “from this year will permanently see a significant increase in their salaries by 10%, which is another 87 million euros”.

“And the government is coming with a new salary list, which we will make in 2023, to add another 500 million euros to the salaries of civil servants, in the lower ranks but also in positions of responsibility and in uniform and faculty memberssaid Mr. Staikouras characteristically.

Regarding the reinstatement of the 13th pension for which Mr. Tsipras committed himself yesterday, as well as the return of retroactive benefits and restitution, as he said were characteristic of the injustice of the personal dispute, Mr. Staikouras stated “the left trees do not exist and the billions promised by Mr. Tsipras as if it were a new Thessaloniki, the Greek citizen has experienced it with the 3rd painful memorandum. Therefore, prudence and prudence are needed». In total, what Mr. Tsipras commits to in case he is elected, are measures amounting to several billion euros, Mr. Staikouras pointed out, noting that at the same time Mr. Tsipras has also promised a series of reductions in excise taxes in fuel and VAT reductions on food and a series of other interventions, which in total mean many billions of euros.

“Every day the opposition announces additional benefits. The interventions in the Excise Tax on fuel and food that he had said in December were 3.5 billion euros and the Thessaloniki program was 25 billion euros. This means that in 2023 the country will return to primary deficits, with what this means for the way markets will treat the Greek economy, with what this means for the investment grade and with what this means for the fiscal framework that will exist in Europe”, stressed Mr. Staikouras.

Referring, on the other hand, to the Prime Minister’s statement yesterday at the thematic press conference, that “with political instability we will not see an investment grade even with binoculars”, Mr. Staikouras overstated the issue by saying that “it is evident worldwide that the more stability there is, the less uncertainty there is in the national and international economic environments, the more likely countries are to upgrade.” And he continued by saying “the Greek economy, therefore society, because there was a great political stability in the previous three years, but mainly because we implemented a number of structural changes, we followed a prudent fiscal policy and a visionary publishing strategy, we were upgraded 11 times, we therefore arrived one step before the investment grade”. We have only had upgrades in the last four years and this is also due to stability, stressed Mr. Staikouras and argued that therefore, the lack of stability in Greece and the uncertainties in the international environment negatively affect the achievement of this last national goal, which is particularly important in a an environment of constantly increased interest rates, the result of the monetary policy implemented at the European level, the interest rate of high inflation, while he recalled that under the previous government we had several downgrades.

In relation to the expected increase in the minimum wage, he noted that at the moment the Minister of Labor is in consultation with the social partners on this issue and a recommendation by the Minister of Labor to the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers for a decision will follow. “What is true is that there should be a brave increase, a third increase, of the minimum wage, but it should also be realistic, taking into account the challenges that the country and businesses are facing. By the end of February we will have a complete picture” said the Minister of Finance. Then, the Minister was asked if, in this context, it could be decided to reduce the insurance contributions, to which he replied that “everything is a question of fiscal space and priorities that the Prime Minister and the Greek government will compose”, while in relation to how fiscal space is found in the current year, he explained that this is the result of two factors that are estimated to be achieved or have been achieved. “One is budget execution. It appears that there is a satisfactory execution of the budget, better than what we initially thought for 2022. And at the same time we have the first sense that energy prices are moving lower or are projected to move lower than initial estimates. We are almost at the end of the first month of the year. Uncertainties remain, high and large. Needs multiply, priorities are transferred or shifted. 8-9 months ago, the priority was electricity at home. Next was fuel, then food, so it seems that the conditions are starting to be created for the creation of fiscal space. We will have a better picture next month and depending on where that comes from, that is, whether it comes from better execution of the budget with permanent features, or whether it comes in the short term from some changes that do not have permanent features, the relevant decisions will be made . After four months we will have better data for the next period, after six months and so on,” the Minister detailed.

Especially as far as accuracy is concerned, Mr. Staikouras pointed out that the problem of inflation has shifted to food worldwide. In the 38 countries of the OECD, 33 have a double-digit rate of increase in food inflation, he said, and Greece is below the European average. “We have some indications from imported products and raw material prices that there may be some cost containment. We have the first positive writing samples in the last months from the housewife’s basket and we also have the interventions in the next period, the 650 million. I think we are putting some first important barriers, among other things. Mr. Minister was also asked if, with the reduction in the price of electricity, the related subsidies will also be reduced and his answer was that the subsidies that are given are to cover an important part of the citizen’s burden. “The subsidies come from the purchase of energy from the providers and a small percentage from the budget. It is obvious that as the whole falls, so do its components,” he said.

Regarding the reports, according to which an Easter gift is coming for pensioners and the vulnerable before the elections, Mr. Staikouras underlined “I will not comment on any measures concerning the future, because the correct sequence of events is first we measure, we find the space , we discuss with the prime minister, the prime minister sets the priorities, we make announcements and then we elaborate.”

Finally, in relation to the estimates for growth of 2% in 2023, the Minister stated the following. “We seem to be moving along satisfactorily. It looks like we are closer to the 2% target, the budget has 1.6%. But in any case we have an exogenous crisis. This means that this crisis hits all the countries of Europe. We must therefore not only see how we are doing as a country, but we must also see how we are doing as a country in relation to the European average. Therefore, based on the data of the European Commission, not the Greek government, Greece in 2022 will have twice the growth rate of the European average. In 2023, it will have a threefold growth rate. We will have record investment and exports in 2022 and according to the European Commission we will have the highest rate of investment growth among all European countries until 2024, with a significant reduction in unemployment, which already exists and which is estimated to continue in future”.

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