The head of the Greek Parliament’s Budget Office on Tuesday appeared optimistic over the prospects of the primary budget surplus for 2018 reaching 4.5 percent of GDP, a figure that would exceed the creditor-mandated goal by one percentage point.
At the same time, Frangiskos Koutentakis warned of “fiscal pressure” from possible legal decisions ordering a return of pension cuts. He also said a sluggish rate of covering state arrears to the private sector is a long-standing problem, despite the fact that adequate liquidity is now recorded in state coffers.
Referring to a pending return of ANFA and SMP profits to Greece, something that requires the country to meet certain post-bailout obligations to creditors by the end of the year, Kountetakis said a failure to receive the 600 million euros will entail a “particularly negative message”.
Kountetakis was appointed as the new head of Parliament’s independent Budget Office last March, after a majority vote by committee members elected from the two current coalition partners, leftist SYRIZA and the small right-wing Independent Greeks (AN.EL).
