ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece’s Parliament has passed the 2015 budget, which projects a narrowing deficit and an economic growth rate of 2.9 per cent.
The budget passed early today on a vote of 155 to 134, with one deputy voting “present”. The approval, coming at the end of a five-day debate, was expected.
The budget projects that Greece’s primary surplus, which excludes interest payments on outstanding debt, will be 3.3 billion euros ($4.05 billion) or 3 per cent of GDP, but Greece’s creditors anticipate a lower surplus.
The budget sees the deficit narrowing to 338 million euros ($415 million), or 0.2 per cent of GDP, next year, down from 1.3 per cent this year.
“After many decades, our country has got a balanced budget. This is a historical moment,” Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told reporters.
The government now has to convince the so-called “troika” of Greece’s creditors – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – that its budget projections are valid and that no additional austerity measures will be needed to achieve the budget targets.
When the draft budget was unveiled in November, troika representatives were demanding an additional 3.5 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in cutbacks or extra taxes. Samaras told Parliament on Sunday that the difference in estimates is 1.7 billion euros ($2.1 billion).
Talks with the troika have been fraught lately, with Samaras speaking of the creditors’ “unreasonable” demands.
Nevertheless, Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis has sent proposals to the troika that would involve cutbacks in pensions and a rise in hotel tax, among other measures, if the two sides fail to agree. The government is also pleading with the troika to wait and see how the budget is being executed before pressing for more cutbacks.
