ATHENS – Greece will record a significant divergence from the fiscal targets agreed for 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus crisis, the Federation of Hellenic Enterprises (SEV) said on Thursday. In its monthly bulletin for economic developments, SEV said that this divergence could reach 10 percentage points of GDP and added that the possibility that the country's partners might ask for additional fiscal measures or the government asking for a loosening of fiscal targets to accelerate economic growth was limited.

"For 2020 and 2021, according to the European Commission's spring forecasts, the country will record a primary deficit of 3.4 pct of GDP in 2020 and a primary surplus of 0.6 pct of GDP in 2021, a 10 percentage point divergence from fiscal targets (7.0 pp in 2020 and 3.0 pp in 2021)," the Federation said, adding the fiscal condition created in the day after the coronavirus pandemic clearly negatively affected the country's debt sustainability. Greece has agreed to achieve primary surpluses of more than 3.5 pct of GDP in the period 2020-2022 and to average primary surpluses of more than 2.2 pct of GDP in the period 2023-2060.