Greece Targets Faster Recovery

Greece expects economic recovery to gain pace next year when it aims to exit its bailout, the government’s draft budget showed, projecting that stronger growth will help it attain a bigger primary surplus and reduce unemployment, Reuters reported. Greece has only recently begun to emerge from a multi-year recession that wiped out about a quarter of its economy and drove unemployment to nearly 28%. “This is the last budget under bailouts,” said Deputy Finance Minister George Chouliarakis as he handed the draft budget to the speaker of the parliament. The country’s leftist-led government sees the economy growing by 2.4% next year, picking up from a projected 1.8% expansion in 2017, according to the draft budget. Unemployment is seen easing to 19% from 21.1% in the second quarter, but still double the eurozone’s current average of 9.1%. On the fiscal front, Athens aims for an ambitious primary budget surplus of 3.57% of gross domestic product, excluding debt servicing outlays, slightly above what it has agreed with its official creditors. Based on the budget, the government expects to outperform this year’s 1.75%-of-GDP primary surplus target, projecting that it will close the year with a 2.2% surplus.