Stark warning by Parliament’s Budget Office

 Report says there is no plan for the period after the bailout program, and monitoring will certainly continue

The Parliamentary Budget Office issued a warning on Wednesday that there is no growth plan for the period after the bailout program ends. Its economists noted that the fiscal adjustment and reforms are being implemented in a constantly changing European and international environment, as if on “quicksand,” and criticized the political state of affairs in the country.

“The possibility of national elections on the pretext of the presidential election is pushing the country into a protracted pre-election period,” the Budget Office said in its quarterly report. It added that “regardless of that, the hesitation and the problems in the government’s reform strategy, the absence of a chartered growth policy and the unclear positions of the opposition are not helping to create a climate of stability in economic policy. As a result serious investments will be discouraged, as they always need a stable and therefore predictable political environment.”

On the issue of a new growth model, the Budget Office argued that “although the government acknowledges a return to the previous growth model would be impossible, it is not clearly stating with what measures, reforms and timetables it will form the conditions for outward growth.” It went on to brand the target that Athens has set for 2.9 percent growth in 2015 as “optimistic,” noting that “it is not clear how the numbers add up to 2.9 percent.”

The report further noted uncertainty on the fiscal results of the current year, due to “the pending economic policy issues, the course of tax revenues – such as whether the collection of 25 percent of new expired debts to the state will be achieved – and the...