GREEK ECONOMY

Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Konstantinos Skrekas referred to potential challenges that might be faced by Greek farmers in the near future.

In his meetings with representatives of the international investing community, with his counterparts, the heads of the institutions and senior officials of IMF, Staikouras presented the targets, already being applied in the first three months of the new government, noting the markets and the institutions' positive reaction. He also focused on the main axes on which the roadmap for the country's economic course will be based.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held separate meetings at his office on Monday with representatives of leading companies in telecoms and energy interested in investing further in Greece.

The 2020 draft budget plan tabled in Parliament by the Greek government is compatible with achieving the fiscal goal for a primary surplus, the Parliament's Budget Office said in a report on Friday. However, the report noted there were uncertainties related with the room to save operating spending, the efficiency of incentives for e-transactions and the height of the growth rate.

The European Commission has found Greek plans aimed at supporting the reduction of non-performing loans of Greek banks to be free of any State aid. The Commission found that, under the asset protection scheme (known by the name of “Hercules”), the Greek State will be remunerated in line with market conditions for the risk it will assume by granting a guarantee on securitised non-performing loans.