ATHENS – “As we are entering the holiday season, I wanted to give you a brief update on the performance of the economy, where we have good news and less good news. The good news is that the Greek economy is still performing much better than most European ones, with a growth rate that will approach 6% for 2022. The country is setting a record for foreign and domestic investments with a strong emphasis on innovation and openness, unemployment continues to decrease and the general picture that exists abroad is that Greece is a safe and attractive investment destination, not only in the short term but also in the long term,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday in his meeting with the President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

“On the other hand,” the prime minister added, “we are still captive and dependent on the global upheavals in the energy market, with an inflation rate that is decreasing but still moving at very high levels.”

He outlined the measures the government is taking to support poorer households, while noting that banks must also shoulder their share of the responsibility in this effort, given that their profitability in 2022 is expected to be high.

“I want to inform you that within the next month we will disburse more than 800 million to support the most vulnerable households with the emergency aid of 250 euros and also with the 300 million euros that will be allocated to the heating allowance. There the news is better than we expected because together with the heating allowance, we also have prices which are fortunately falling.”

The prime minister also referred to the bad loans and the banks: “At the same time, however, we are also faced with a European increase in interest rates. Possibly imposed at an ECB level in order to contain inflation, but we fully recognise that this has an impact on borrowers by increasing the cost of borrowing. And I want to inform you that we are in talks with the Greek banks, which must also shoulder their share of the responsibility, supporting vulnerable households overall, as it seems they will have a high profitability in 2022, so that we can also avert the creation of a new generation of bad loans.”