Nikos Papathanasis said that data shows that the percentage of bad loans has significantly decreased.
Responding to the harsh criticism he received from MPs of all opposition parties – who accused the government of removing any framework for the protection of vulnerable social groups, leaving them at the mercy of banks and “servicemen” – Mr. Papathanasis rejected their objections arguing that “with the initiatives he took, the percentage of “red loans” that exceeded 40% in 2019, was limited to 7.5% in 2024″.
In total in 2020-21 non-performing loans to banks and “servicers” amounted to 92.2 billion euros, while in the first quarter of 2024, they have decreased to 70.4 billion euros.
In 2019, non-performing loans were approximately 50% of the total amount of loans in the economy, while today this percentage has dropped significantly to 32%,” said Mr. Papathanasis and added:
“This improvement is very important and is of course recognized by many international rating agencies that deal with the economy, because every upgrade essentially means a reduction in our debt service and this gives the state a fiscal leeway.
The Deputy Minister of Finance also provided information on the results of the extrajudicial mechanism, pointing out that “with the 2023 elections, new obligations were imposed on the service providers and with its reinforcement the perimeter was widened where it essentially became mandatory for everyone, for the benefit of vulnerable fellow citizens us and people with disabilities”.
“The arrangements of the extrajudicial mechanism are now moving at historically low levels. In August 2024, there are now 22,214 successful arrangements for initial debts amounting to 7.5 billion euros, while compared to August 2023, an increase in arrangements by 50.4% has been recorded. Let us recall that in August 2019, the corresponding settlements of the extrajudicial mechanism ranged at disappointing levels: only 2,200 settlements in total”, noted Mr. Papathanasis.
Also, the Deputy Minister of Finance rejected the opposition’s criticism of the bill, which spoke of yet another unclear ineffective development plan of the government without a vision, without a national strategy, without commitments and provisions for supporting small and medium-sized businesses, as well as transparency and accountability.
“Four are the basic features of the bill: speed, transparency, efficiency and public continuous accountability,” countered Mr. Papathanasis, pointing out that this year the Public Investment Program has been increased by 900 million euros.
As he emphasized, “the Public Investment Program is the main source of funding for our country’s development policy and contributes decisively to maintaining primary surpluses […] It is an umbrella which includes all the European tools and the national participation of the European tools as well as the national part of the National Development Programme.
Within the Public Investment Program this year we have an increase of 900 million euros while the total amount entering the Greek economy in 2024 is now at a record high and from 12.2 billion euros, it now rises in total to 13.1 billion euros and this path as planned will be incremental for 2025 and 2026. In 2025 we plan to reach 14.4 billion euros and in 2026 to 15.9 billion euros”, he underlined.
Finally, Mr. Papathanasis assured that the Medium-term Fiscal Program 2025-2028 will soon come to the Parliament, underlining that Greece with the fiscal policy it followed is now far from the previous difficult years it went through.
“It is an obligation of all EU member states to enter into a process of drawing up their budgets for the coming years. So it is important to know the fiscal capacities of our country precisely because if we do not achieve the targets, then something could happen which is happening now in 8 countries: they enter an excessive deficit process and then accept recommendations and if they do not correct their finances may also come under enhanced supervision.
According to the protothema, Greece is far from that. It has been difficult in the previous years, it has passed three memorandums and under no circumstances do we want to mortgage the future of the young children because we want Greece to be stable, to have growth and to create new jobs”, emphasized Mr. Papathanasis.
The processing of the bill in the competent committee of the Parliament has been completed in the second reading and tomorrow it is scheduled to be debated and voted on by the Plenary.
ND was in favor of his principle, while SYRIZA, PASOK, EL.LY, “Niki”, Pleussi Eleftherias and “Spartiates” were reserved and KKE together with the New Left voted against it.
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