Fin. Min.: The Ukrainian crisis will not derail the Greek economy

The assessment that the Ukrainian crisis will not derail the Greek economy, was expressed by the Minister of Finance Christos Staikouras, in his speech at the conference “Banking Summit: Paving the way for growth“.

According to the minister, “what we did was to take advantage of the 2021 yield to mitigate the impact of 2022. We created a fiscal space to take advantage of it.”

As Mr. Staikouras said, the second crisis that the European Union is experiencing will have significant consequences, uncertainty is increasing, risks are being created. In the case of Greece, he added, the impact will come from inflation, due to rising energy prices. Unfortunately, he said, no state can fully absorb the costs, and reiterated that decisions are needed at European level.

“We need fiscal space, but also fiscal responsibility. We use the fiscal space wisely,” he stressed and stated, at the same time, that the fiscal policy is important, the investments that include the issues of defense are protected, given the fluid geopolitical environment. He pointed out that fiscal rules should take into account external factors and that “we must be very careful about the technical aspects of these rules. “Positive incentive mechanisms are more effective.”

“The issue is sustainable development and it seems that we are achieving this goal,” he said, adding that “we want to get out of the mechanism of increased supervision. “We must achieve fiscal sustainability and realistic primary surpluses for 2023, if our conditions allow.”