Submitted on Saturday, April 29, 2023, at European Commission the Greek Stability Program for the years 2023-2026.

Based on the basic macroeconomic forecasts included in the Stability Program, it is foreseen development 2.3% for the year 2023, 3% for the year 2024, 3% for the year 2025 and 2.1% for the year 2026.

-THE inflation it is expected to be 4.5% in the year 2023 and deescalate to 2.4% in the year 2024 and 2% in the years 2025 and 2026.

-THE unemployment it is expected to reach 11.8% in 2023 and decelerate to 10.9% in 2024, 10% in 2025 and 9.8% in 2026.

– The strengthening of investments is expected to be particularly significant with an annual increase of 13.2% in 2023, 9.7% in 2024, 10.7% in 2025 and 7.2% in 2026.

An important role in boosting investments is expected to be played by the Recovery and Resilience Fund with public investments estimated at 1.7% of GDP in 2023, 1.9% of GDP in 2024, 1.8% of GDP in 2025 and 1.7 % of GDP in 2026.

The Stability Program includes all the measures that have been instituted from the beginning of 2023 until today, such as the permanent reduction of insurance contributions by 3 units, the permanent abolition of the solidarity contribution in the private and public sector, the extension of the VAT reduction in the focus , transport and a series of goods and services, the increase of disability allowances and disability pensions, the abolition of the 1% contribution to the Social Security System, the reform of the salary of the NHS doctors, the regulation of the salary issues of the Armed Forces, the reform of the heavy and unhealthy, the increase of the student allowance, the extension of the maternity allowance of employees from 6 to 9 months, the extension of the VAT exemption for new buildings, the support of 200 to 300 euros for pensioners who did not receive an increase due to personal differences, as well as the increase in the minimum wage to 780 euros and the consequent increase in unemployment benefits. In addition, the implemented measures to deal with the Energy Crisis are included, amounting to 4.8% of GDP for 2022 and an estimated amount of 1.2% of GDP for 2023, as well as an increase in the regular subsidy of hospitals from 1.68 billion euros in 2023 to €1.75 billion in 2024.

In addition, the Stability program includes in the base scenario the cost of increasing pensions each year based on GDP and inflation, as well as the announced by the TIF, the increase in the salaries of civil servants from 1/1/2024.

Based on the above, and under the condition of stable policies, the primary result of General Government is projected to be a surplus of 1.1% for 2023, 2.1% in 2024, 2.3% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026.

It is noted that as the country is in a pre-election period, any additional pre-election measures that have been announced are not included, while the target of 0.7% primary surplus for 2023 remains. In particular, the current Government has announced, in addition to increases in pensions and salaries of civil servants included in the above result, additional fiscal measures amounting to 0.1% of GDP for 2024 and 0.3% of GDP for the years 2025 and 2026, such as the increase of the tax allowance by 1,000 euros for families with children , the reduction of subsistence allowances, the increase of the minimum guaranteed income by 8%, the gradual abolition of the employment tax, the gradual reduction of an additional 1% of insurance contributions, the increase of the maternity allowance for self-employed professionals and farmers from 4 to 9 months on the minimum wage, a new permanent program of 10,000 new jobs for young people and a range of other initiatives. The implementation of the above measures does not disturb the medium-term target for a primary surplus in the region of 2%.

A key element of the Stability Program is the rapid de-escalation of the General Government Debt, which, with stable policies, is expected to decrease from 171.3% of GDP in 2022 to 162.6% of GDP in 2023, 150.8% of GDP in 2024, 142.6% of GDP in 2025 and 135.2% of GDP in 2026.