Greece’s 2009 budget deficit will be more than 15% of GDP after revision. This was announced today by Greek Finance Minister Giorgio Papaconstantinou, quoted by the press in a conference in Cyprus (photo). Eurostat has to officially announce the deficit revision in November. Earlier this deficit was established at 13.6%.
Greece’s finance minister has said the country’s economy will shrink by up to 3% in 2011, worse than previously estimated.
“Growth will contract by 4% this year, and next year by between 2.5% and 3%,” said George Papaconstantinou.
The government’s draft 2011 budget had forecast only a 2.6% contraction.
He also said the country was not seeking to extend the schedule for repaying its 110bn euro bail-out loan from the EU and IMF.
Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, the minister played down the issue of a payment delay – which he said was not up to the Greek government – but did not definitively rule it out.
“What is up to us is to do the best that we can to reduce the deficit and do the structural reforms,” he said, adding that the government was not “at the moment thinking or proposing something else”.
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