Huge primary surpluses that will reach 5.19 percent by 2022 and a 4.77bn euro increase in tax revenues in the 2019-2022 period are just two of the measures that will further burden taxpayers in the government’s medium-term fiscal programme.
The Medium-Term Fiscal Strategy Framework will be tabled in parliament along with an omnibus bill which meets dozens of preconditions for closing the current bailout programme, and which is expected to come to a vote on 14 June.
The Greek Fiscal Council has already said that GDP projections in the programme are overly optimistic.
“With this programme we are creating fiscal space to lower taxes and selectively increase social spending,” a top-level finance ministry source told To Vima.
The 2019-2022 medium-term programme projects a 3.56 percent primary surplus for 2018, 3.96 percent for 2019, 4.15 percent in 2020, 4.53 percent in 2021, and a record-breaking 5.19 percent of GDP in 2022.
This is despite the fact that the government’s agreement with creditors requires only a 3.5 percent primary surplus.
The Greek Fiscal Council in its analysis of the medium-term programme projects slight increases of about 1.35 percent in public revenues, and it concluded that the 3.5 percent primary surplus target could have been achieved with a milder increase in public revenues.
The programme projects that unemployment will fall from 19.9 percent this year to 14.3 percent in 2022.
