Greece exceeded budget surplus target of 1.5% but with the eurozone’s 2018 target at 3.5%, more hardship is around the corner Here’s a safe prediction for 2017: the Greek debt crisis will turn ugly again. In fact, the next chapter has already begun. On Wednesday, eurozone finance ministers put their plan for short-term debt relief on hold because Athens handed a relatively small sum of money to pensioners at Christmas and said it would pay for school meals for 30,000 children in impoverished areas. In the view of Alexis Tsipras, Greek prime minister, the country has earned the right to make small acts of generosity, like €617m (£518m) for pensioners. Greece didn’t just meet its target to run a budget surplus of 1.5% last year, it exceeded it. That achievement was secured after seven years of austerity, a period in which Greece also found itself at the front end of Europe’s migration crisis. Continue reading...
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