PBO warning over possible fiscal ripples

Handout talk and court decisions are threatening to drive the economy and the execution of the state budget off course, the Parliament’s Budget Office warned in its report for the third quarter of 2018.

At the report’s presentation on Tuesday, PBO coordinator Frangiskos Koutentakis said that although the general picture of the economy is positive, “certain points of uncertainty remain.” These include “the climax of fiscal pressures under the burden of judicial decisions that revoke applied salary and pension regulations,” according to the report.

Koutentakis pointed out that, according to the recent verdicts on the special salary systems, there is no clarity about which cuts adhere to the Constitution and which do not, and therefore who can claim a refund.

The report added that the pre-election climate is also generating uncertainty, since the increasing political rivalry “may send contradictory messages concerning economic policy commitments and upset the favorable prospects created.”