Bank of Greece (BoG) officials on Tuesday predicted a primary budget surplus figure in 2016 as reaching 0.8 percent, which if proven correct would exceed the memorandum-mandated target of 0.5 percent of GDP.
On the year as a whole, the BoG forecast mirrors the one by European officials, namely, a recession of 0.3 percent for 2016.
Greece’s central bank also estimates that increased deposits in Greek banks since May 2016 – when the first review of the Greek program was concluded – stood at 4.6 billion euros.
Furthermore, the BoG forecast for GDP growth in 2017 is 2.5 percent, hours after the relevant economy minister predicted a very ambitious 2.7 percent.
The caveat, however, according to top BoG officials, is an achievement of fiscal goals, promotion of reforms and provisions agreed to with creditors.
In a related development, BoG Gov. Yannis Stournaras received representatives of Greece’s institutional creditors, the “quartet”, on Tuesday.
Issues reportedly discussed included changes in systemic banks’ top management, a “prior action” demanded of Athens by creditors, the specter of non-performing loans looming over the domestic banking system and Stournaras’ position that primary budget surplus targets after 2018 should be reduced.
