Finance Ministry: Greek primary surplus sustainable

The country, after several years, is achieving a significant primary surplus, much bigger than initial or revised estimates, as a result of achieving targets in the revenue leg and surpassing targets in the spending leg. This is a sustainable surplus," Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Monday during his address at a Global Capital Forum event on "Greece: A solid investment destination.

He noted that all available figures showed that the government achieved the stabilisation of the country's international position and its public finances, creating the preconditions to end a protracted recession during the current year. This is the result of huge, unprecedented sacrifices by Greek society, Staikouras stressed.

     "A sustainable growing Greece will be based, from 2014, beyond any memorandum, on a cohesive, realistic strategy that is compatible with European targets," Staikouras said.

He added that the basic axes of this strategy should be:

• Inclusion of the non-transparent part of the economy into the official economy and its taxation.
• Ensuring strict implementation of rules and practices for fiscal management and discipline.
• Creating a fair, efficient and modern state by accelerating administrative reforms.
• Improving the quality of public finances.
• Enhancing the efficiency of social spending to deal with poverty in the country.
• Boosting investments and promoting exports.
• Further strengthening of public debt's long-term sustainability.

He confessed that the public debt, for decades, had a very strong rising trend and said that its growth rate is beginning to slow, its average outstanding maturity has been expanded and servicing costs have been markedly reduced. However, according to him, and despite these positive developments, the issue of a further strengthening of the debt's long-term sustainability remains open.

He said that realistic solutions and techniques exist but noted that they must be adopted the soonest possible. Staikouras added that Greece was working systematically to be able to return to international capital markets in the second half of 2014.