Aiming to reach a primary surplus this year for the first time in a decade, Greece’s economy will recover enough next year so that it can return to the markets after being locked out when it needed international bailouts and stiffed investors and Diaspora bond holders with 74 percent losses, the government has reiterated.
It could begin by the end of 2014, Deputy Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said, although Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, earlier said it would begin by the first half of next year.
“There are strong signs that people’s sacrifices have started to yield fruit,” Staikouras said during a parliamentary debate on the draft budget for 2014, predicting that the debt-wracked country will next year emerge from six years of recession. He didn’t say what those signs were as the economy is still shrinking but the debt isn’t.
Staikouras also fended off criticism against the draft budget from Greece’s opposition parties as well as members of the government coalition who are balking at demands by international lenders to lift a ban on foreclosures on homeowners who can’t afford to pay their mortgages because of big pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions imposed by the government.
Samaras and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras want the ban lifted, although they said they would try to offer protection to those who can’t pay from those who are using the moratorium to avoid paying. They said only a small percentage of people are exploiting the ban but didn’t say how exempting the majority who aren’t would help bank balance sheets.
Speaking in Parliament, New Democracy MP Giorgos Vlachos accused Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras of dealing with the foreclosures issue in a “frivolous” and “amateurish” fashion and said while he objected to foreclosures that he would vote for them as ordered by his party because they’re part of the 2014 budget.
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