PM’s advisor Alexis Patelis to Bloomberg: Growth in 2022 may exceed forecasts

The assessment that the growth of the Greek economy in 2022 will probably exceed forecasts, due to the better performance of tourism, was expressed by the economic advisor of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Alexis Patelis.

In an interview with BloombergTV, Mr. Patelis pointed out that the government’s forecast for the growth rate is always a bit conservative, however “we think it will eventually exceed our official forecast for 2022”, since as he said in some areas tourism exceeds 2019 levels.

Today 9:40 CET @business pic.twitter.com/JKdcGfLBPb

— Alex Patelis (@PatelisAlex) August 19, 2022

The Prime Minister’s economic adviser emphasized that Greece’s target for the primary deficit of 2022 is approximately 2% of GDP, while he expressed the opinion that “it is very important for Greece to maintain its credibility.

Referring to the possibility of fiscal support measures, Mr. Patelis noted that they should be measured, targeted and proportional and – as he said – the Prime Minister will make announcements at the beginning of September.

According to him, Greece is sticking to its goal of regaining investment grade in 2023, while he added that tax revenues in the country are currently “progressing much better than expected.”

“One of Greece’s strongest points is its political stability. We have fought populism, we have a one-party majority government and we believe that this will remain after next year’s elections,” he added.