ATHENS – Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras on Wednesday offered assurances that the government will continue to be at society’s side for as long as it takes, leaving the door open to further expanding support measures. In an interview, Staikouras avoided making an immediate commitment regarding new support measures and said that “everything will depend on the course of public finances” and the fiscal space that will be revealed in the final draft of the state budget, which is to be presented in Parliament in the next few weeks.

He noted that “if there is fiscal space and it can be used this year, it must be exploited because the crisis is still here or might be much more intense in the next two months”. He underlined that the state must be at the forefront exploiting any fiscal space. Staikouras said that this could take the form of short-term measures only for this year, as they will have a zero impact on next year’s budget and will not burden the necessary fiscal adjustment towards 2023. “I cannot rule out any possibility,” the FinMin said.