The governor of the Bank of Greece, Yannis Stournaras, submitted the bank’s report on monetary policy for 2015-2016 to Greek Parliament and warns that excessive tax hikes will put Greek economy.
As the report says, the greatest risk for Greek economy “relates to the excessive emphasis on tax increases as decided in the context of the first review in order to cover the fiscal gap of 2016-2018: a stronger than expected recessionary effect from the higher tax burden could imply, as an indirect impact, a shortfall against revenue targets.”
It also adds that “any delay in the implementation of reforms and privatizations envisaged in the program would dampen economic growth, thereby refueling uncertainty, undermining confidence and weakening the prospects of a definitive exit from the crisis”, while an exacerbation of the refugee crisis could hurt tourism and trade, slowing economic recovery.
The report also says the economy could return to sustainable growth by lowering the 3.5 percent of GDP primary budget surplus target to 2.0 percent from 2018 onwards.
