The economist, Stelios Platis, was hosted on the Protoselidos show about the 17 government measures to support society.
He initially stated that these measures came after a long delay. "The measures arrived after the pressure of the society because the first answer of the Minister of Finance was negative. They were staunchly against any interest rate subsidy and I think it's an example of the power that society has when it can rally and stick in one direction," he said.
Mr. Platis expressed his overall satisfaction with the measures as it is a mix of measures including both horizontal measures such as fuel subsidy, graduated electricity subsidy and targeted measures such as benefit recipients and extra support to cover the inflationary loss.
Regarding the interest rates, he said that the measure concerns families with an annual income of 50 thousand euros and will cover the purchase and construction of first homes with a maximum subsidy for a period of two years. "The essential effort here is to cover the loans that have increased and not the loans that are at a fixed interest rate," he stressed.
Asked to answer why the world is reacting and considers that he does not have much support, he replied that in order to be able to judge these measures we must see what is happening in other countries.
"I have done a little research and in the EU the average support is around 1,8% of GDP. I am referring to the countries that have the same fiscal conditions and laws. Through these comparable situations based on our own GDP, these measures should have been at least 500 million and not below 200 million," he stressed.
Mr. Platis noted that the measures are in the right direction and the Government has rightly adopted them, but they are of low intensity and could have been bolder without disrupting or jeopardizing fiscal stability.
Sigmalive