Fiscal adjustment

The new financial rules proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday put Greece and the rest of the European Union in a new framework of fiscal discipline as of 2025, with greater flexibility in terms of the rate of reduction of public debt compared to the existing rules, along with reform requirements.

The draft budget amendment weakens the budgetary consolidation as it was announced for 2021, the Fiscal Council said on Thursday night, in a release.

The head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Klaus Regling, has left open the prospect of Greece not lowering its tax-free threshold as it agreed to with creditors, but Regling also signaled that the incoming Greek government's aim of lowering of primary surplus targets is at the moment hardly a sure thing.

The same people who have shouldered the fiscal adjustment of recent years continue to pay the lion's share of taxes, with 90 percent of income tax paid by just 19 percent of the population, an event organized by the Economic Chamber of Greece (OEE) on the 2019 budget heard on Tuesday.

The fiscal adjustments enforced through Greece's three bailout programs ended on August 20 and policies will now shift towards supporting those who have borne the brunt of the economic burdens, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday in his first address at the new cabinet that emerged from a reshuffle earlier this week.

Greece's economy and society has entered a "new phase" and "citizens will soon feel the difference," Greece's government spokesman said on Monday.

BELGRADE - Serbia has made an impressive turnaround, stabilising its economic situation over the last three years, but whether those achievements will remain sustainable depends on whether the Serbian people and their leaders are prepared to make them such, says IMF Mission Head James Roaf.

In the recommendations, which are very similar to those issued last year, Slovenia is called to pursue its fiscal policy in line with the requirements of the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, "which translates into a substantial fiscal effort for 2018".

The mini-summit of European Union leaders at Versailles on Monday had all the hallmarks of a French initiative: an imposing setting and grandiose rhetoric aimed at confirming France's role as a leader, when the fact is that Berlin's has complete dominance over "united" Europe.

The Serbian government's current program has exceeded all expectations in terms of economic growth, says head of the IMF mission for Serbia James Roaf.

"Investment, employment and fiscal adjustment, but it is early to declare it a success, as Serbia has still much to do, he wrote in an op-ed published by the weekly NIN.