Greek lawmakers approved the nation’s first budget in decades forecasting almost no deficit, as eurozone finance ministers prepare to meet in Brussels to discuss a potential extension to Greece’s bailout program.
Of the 300-seat parliament, 290 lawmakers voted on the plan on Sunday. Those in favor numbered 155; 134 voted against and one expressed no view, according to results read out by Greek Parliament Speaker Evangelos Meimarakis.
“We are exiting the era when bond markets were closed to us and we needed bailout loans to survive,” Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told lawmakers before the vote. “Greece is now becoming a gateway for trade between Europe and the Far East.”
The plan sees 2.9 percent growth in GDP by next year, one of the fastest growth rates in the eurozone, as Greece is on track to emerge this year from the longest and steepest recession in more than half a century.
While general government debt is projected to fall to 171.4 percent of GDP from 177.7 percent this year, it is set to remain the highest in the EU.
The government, trailing in polls to Syriza, and with a constitutional impasse over a new president likely to trigger snap elections early next year, is pushing to exit its unpopular bailout program at the end of this year.
Samaras has vowed to replace regular emergency loan disbursements with precautionary credit lines from the IMF and the European Stability Mechanism, which would come with fewer strings attached than the current program, and only be used if the nation’s borrowing costs spike.
Greece first needs to agree with the troika of officials representing the nation’s lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF — on the measures required to complete the last review of the current program, paving the way for the disbursement of about 7 billion euros (US$8.6 billion) in aid outstanding.
This review, which started in September, remains stalled, as the nation’s creditors raise doubts about the projections of next year’s budget, and ask Greece to adopt more budget savings in order to ensure that it meets its targets.
Eurozone finance ministers scheduled to meet in Brussels yesterday and today plan to discuss a possible extension to allow the completion of the last review before the current bailout expires on Dec. 31.
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