GreekNewsOnDemand.com: IMF DESTROYS Greece in 10 years. Now says Greece needs lower fiscal targets.
Before you read the below Financial Times article, understand this about Greece and its crisis: It was COMPLETELY STAGED by the IMF, in co-operation with the then Greek PM, George Papandreou, and has been used as a pretext to ENSLAVE GREECE (just like so many other nations out there) and rob it of its public assets and natural resources which number in the…TRILLIONS. Get our book HELLENIC CRISIS (click here) which will reveal the full truth about this “crisis”. Members of the Greek statistical agency ELSTAT (that handle the official numbers) says they were FORCED and THREATENED to MANIPULATE UPWARDS both the greek debt and the greek deficit which served as a…PRETEXT for Greece to be put under the control of the TROIKA!!!…
IMF says Greece needs lower fiscal targets
Annual assessment says easing needed to support country’s recovery
Valentina Romei in London SEPTEMBER 27 2019
The IMF has urged Greece and its EU partners to agree to ease its fiscal target in order to support the country’s fragile economic recovery and increase social spending.
In its annual assessment of the Greek economy the IMF called on Athens and its European partners to “build consensus around a lower primary balance path” for 2020.
The IMF’s position contrasts with the stance of the European Commission which argues the high fiscal target is necessary to keep Greece’s debt load sustainable. In June, Brussels said Athens “should . . . preserve a sound fiscal position which ensures compliance with the primary surplus target . . . of 3.5 per cent of GDP for 2018 and over the medium term”.
On Friday the IMF praised Greece’s new centre-right government’s efforts to prioritise growth but it said Athens faced “an uphill battle” in the face of a high number of non-performing loans, a lack of investment, low productivity and adverse demographics.
Greece’s fiscal primary surplus — the difference between government spending and revenues excluding interest debt payments — is expected to be 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product this year, in line with Athens’ commitment to its European partners and much larger than the eurozone average of 0.6 per cent.
“Much of the needed structural transformation of the Greek economy still lies ahead,” the IMF said, as it called on Athens to make further moves to liberalise product markets and closed professions and to push through reforms to boost competitiveness.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece’s prime minister, addresses the Climate Action Summit at the UN General Assembly last week © AP
After July’s election Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the New Democracy party, became prime minister of a business-friendly government, replacing Alexis Tsipras and his leftwing Syriza alliance.
Confronted with unemployment at more than 17 per cent — more than double the eurozone average — Mr Mitsotakis promised a programme of tax cuts, privatisation and increased investment spending.
On Friday the IMF praised the new administration’s “promising start” in unblocking structural reforms and fixing the banking sector “currently a misfiring engine of growth”.
It also credited moves to unblock privatisation, push through business deregulation and digitalisation as well as proposing labour market reforms.
The Greek economy has been expanding since 2017 and is expected to grow at around 2 per cent in 2019 and next year, but at this pace it “will take another decade and a half for real per-capita incomes to reach pre-crisis levels”, the IMF said.
The international organisation also advocated a change of fiscal mix to free up some fiscal space, saying “too much goes to pensions”.
It proposed broadening the tax base — getting a larger share of workers paying tax — as well as improving Greek tax compliance, one of the weakest in the EU.
The IMF has voiced warnings about the speed of Greece’s fiscal consolidation before. Last year, it said the country did “not require further fiscal consolidation” ahead of its exit from the eurozone’s bailout fund.
Source >> https://www.ft.com/content/30b21820-e122-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc