by Jessica Dye
Financial Times
November 13, 2017
Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras made an unscheduled television appearance on Monday night to announce a €1.4bn “social dividend” to be paid next month to more than 3m Greeks who have been hit hardest by the country’s seven-year recession.
The handout was approved by the country’s bailout creditors, the EU and International Monetary Fund, in a teleconference earlier in the day. It amounted to more than double a similar payment of €617m made last year without prior agreement with the creditors, prompting a clash with the left-wing Syriza government.
The premier said this year’s fiscal performance “exceeded our most optimistic forecasts with the primary budget surplus (before payments on the public debt) set to beat the target of 1.75 per cent of gross domestic product by a large margin.”
The primary surplus for 2017 could reach an unprecedented 3 per cent of GDP thanks to higher-than-forecast revenues from social security contributions and tax revenues, according to analysts in Athens.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment