The Greek Parliament Budget Office warns that if the government postpones the completion of the third evaluation of the bailout program for 2018, Athens will fail to meet the budget targets for next year.
Head of the Budget Office of the House, Panagiotis Liargovas, spoke to the General State Budget Balance Report Committee, stressing the importance of closing the bailout program review by the end of the year. Otherwise, the delay will create serious problems in the 2018 budget.
“If it (the review) finishes at the end of the year, it will be just a change in schedule. If it is delayed past the end of the year, then we have a complete divergence and developments will be unfavorable,” Liargovas said. “So, the red line is the end of the year.”
Liargovas also characterized the Greek government’s growth target of 1.8 percent in 2017 as “ambitious”.
“In order to achieve growth of 1.8 percent in 2017, we should have a growth rate of 3 – 3.1 percent in the remaining period – ie in the last six months. If it is not 3 percent, we will not achieve a growth rate of 1.8 percent,” he said.
“I estimate that revenues in the third quarter will be higher in the summer months than in the last three months when the citizens’ financial obligations are accumulating and we have a tax evasion.” Liargocas said.
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