Global uncertainty may have cast its shadow on Greece, but this year’s state budget kicks off with a “breather” that could not have been taken for granted.

It is the first budget tabled after the end of the EU’s enhanced fiscal supervision mechanism, and that alone highlights the sacrifices made over the last 12 years.

It also underlies the need for fiscal balance from now on, so that history will not repeat itself.

Prudent fiscal management, to which the finance minister (Christos Staikouras, photo) has referred, is the key for the prospects that are opening in 2023.

At the same time, however, it is the basic precondition for the country to sail smoothly through the successive crises and dangers predicted in macroeconomic projections.

Despite the imponderable factor of external challenges and high inflation, growth projections facilitate a broad spectrum of reforms that could improve the lives of citizens at this difficult juncture.

This prospect is pf no small importance, and it is not an electoral trick. With proper management, it can be a tool for dealing with the next day, providing a bulwark for Greek society.

Meanwhile, the operational classification that is extended to a second level provides an additional level of transparency, as it permits the issuance of analytic information on the distributiοn of funds in each sector of the state.

The budget is not just papers and numbers that can be trampled over whenever one sees fit.

The fact that those who draft it and read it now understand that is the greatest lesson of the last 12 years.

Headlines