By S. Papapetros
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More austerity is one of the main characteristics of Greece’s 2018 draft budget – along with a higher forecast for a primary budget surplus target - with total social spending cuts to reach 1.599 billion euros.
The draft budget was tabled in Parliament by the leftist-rightist coalition government on Tuesday.
Specifically, social spending will drop from 21.037 billion euros in 2017 to 19.438 billion euros in 2018, with this outlay covering social security, state hospitals, the public health care provider (EOPPY) and welfare protection.
At the same time, fiscal results by pension funds in 2018 are forecast to reach a surplus of 859 million euros, substantially improved over 2017’s results by 1.057 billion euros.
