Greeks who
have suffered during the seven-year debt crisis will have something to look
forward to. The government is planning handouts worth €1bn.
The
leftist-led government is calling it a “social dividend”.
“The
surplus outperformance which will be distributed to social groups that have
suffered the biggest pressure during the financial crisis, will be close to
€1bn,” government spokesman
Dimitris
Tzanakopoulos told reporters.
As reported
by the Reuters news agency, Tzanakopoulos was referring to Greece’s expected
return to nearly 2% growth this year and achieve a primary surplus – which
excludes debt servicing costs – o f 2.2% of gross domestic product,
outpeforming the 1.75% bailout target.
Hundreds of
thousands of Greeks have lost their jobs during a six-year recession that cut
more than a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product.
Officials,
however, have yet to make known who will eligible for it.
The rate of
unemployment currently hovers at 21.3% and youth unemployment at 42.8%.
The government
will make final decisions in late November, once it gets full-year budget data,
Tzanakopoulos said.
Greece’s
fiscal performance this year and its 2018 budget is expected to be discussed
with representatives from its European Union lenders and the International
Monetary Fund next week when a crucial review of its bailout progress starts.
Tzanakopoulos
reiterated that Athens aims to wrap up the review as soon as possible, ruling
out new austerity measures.
Greece
exceeded its goal for a primary budget surplus in 2015 and 2016. Last December,
Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras
unexpectedly announced a one-off Christmas bonus to pensioners, angering
foreign creditors.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/greeces-poor-promised-social-dividend/