Fiscal leeway question mark
Is the leeway the European Commission has given to Greece to increase public spending by 3 billion euros per year enough to cover the new support measures that will be included in 2025 budget?
This is the question the government will seek to answer in the coming weeks as preparations progress both for the prime minister’s speech at the Thessaloniki International Fair and for the drafting of the midterm plan that will cover the period up to 2028, as well as the submission of the draft budget in October.
Finance Ministry officials take for granted the integration of all the measures that have already been announced for the next year, while leaving open the possibility of some space for other interventions in the fields that the government wants to focus on: Housing, demographics, benefits and dealing with inflation. Since the demographic issue is a pressing problem, the debate has opened on increasing the child benefit, which has remained stuck at the same level for a number of years.
The State General Accounting Office has already messaged all public bodies asking them to assess the expenses they plan to make next year. It is customary for all agencies to ask for more, with the result that the final bill of the increase eventually moves to the limits of inflation.
