SEV calls for fiscal discipline in post-bailout period

Greece’s post-bailout recovery will require “a greater sense of responsibility” from the country’s political leadership than that exhibited during the adjustment period of the last eight years, as Greece will lose the financial safety net provided by its creditors, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) said on Thursday.

“If the country does not adhere to what has been agreed in terms of maintaining increased budget discipline, it will again be left out of the markets, as it did in 2010. And this time around, it will be a very painful rescue, carried out in the context of a deconstruction of its European identity,” SEV warned in a report.

According to SEV, one of the biggest challenges facing the country will be to achieve economic growth rates that will allow it to refinance its massive debt through the markets.

To achieve this growth, SEV points to eight priorities: Implementing a growth-friendly fiscal consolidation policy through the restructuring of public spending, reducing tax rates, and expanding the tax base; continuing reforms that will attract investments and improve the economy's competitiveness; reducing non-perfoming loans and restructuring over-indebted businesses; gradually removing capital controls, differentiating and increasing exports; accelerating the economy's digitization; improving the country's educational system and connecting it with the market's needs and redistributing public spending in favor of investment and improving the use of  EU funds.