Draft budget to be tabled today - The Best from Greece

The cabinet is meeting at 9.30am on Friday to approve the draft 2012 budget, after which the document will then be tabled in parliament at noon.

 

At 12.30pm, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is expected to give a press conference on the budget plan.

 

The budget plan will forecast a budget deficit of 5.4 percent of GDP if a planned debt swap to reduce the state's debt maintenance costs goes ahead, state radio reported earlier, without citing a source.

 

Excluding the effects of the debt swap, also known as "public sector involvement" (PSI), the draft budget predicts that the fiscal gap will be 7 percent of gross domestic product next year, from 9 percent in 2011, Net radio said.

 

Kathimerini daily reported that the 2011 budget deficit could be as high as 9.3 percent of GDP, according to the budget draft, higher than an estimate of around 9 percent revealed by Prime Minister Lucas Papademos last week.