MacroPolis

As new Covid-19 infections continue to emerge in Greece and concerns grow about the economic impact of the pandemic, SYRIZA has ramped up its criticism of the government on the healthcare front, as well as on the issues raised by the Pissarides report on economic reform.

The new, and promoted, members of Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s cabinet were sworn in on Wednesday after the first, and minimal, reshuffle since New Democracy came to power.

A committee of “wise men” chaired by Nobel laureate economist Sir Christopher Pissarides published on Monday its draft recommendations to the government for transforming the Greek economy.

The latest OECD outlook for Greece, made public on Wednesday, has shown that Greece’s economy was growing at the steady pace of close to 2 percent in the three years before the coronavirus pandemic, which heralded a slowdown.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has applauded the compromise reached in Brussels over the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the Next Generation EU recovery package totalling 1.82 billion euros, of which Greece could receive more than 70 billion.

The Greek government has tightened emergency measures after a surge in Covid-19 cases raised fears of an early second wave of the pandemic.

The Bank of Greece (BoG) published its Monetary Policy Report for 2020 on Monday, outlining the numerous challenges that the pandemic will pose on the Greek economy, public finances and the banking system.

The European Stability Mechanism published on Thursday, along with its 2019 annual report, an independent evaluation of the Greek bailout programmes.

The European Commission published on Wednesday the sixth report of the post-programme surveillance framework, paving the way for Greece to benefit from another round of debt relief measures.

The fifth post-programme surveillance review was completed on Friday following three days of talks between the Greek authorities and the heads of the institutions in Athens that were preceded by a week of discussions with the technical teams during the previous week.