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Greek parliament ratifies 2018 state budget

Greek parliament ratifies 2018 state budget

Athens, Dec 20 (IANS) The Greek parliament have ratified the 2018 state budget as the government appeared confident that it will be the last one tabled while the country was under a bailout programme.

The budget was approved on Tuesday evening with the backing of the 153 deputies of the two-partite Left-led ruling coalition, while 144 MPs voted against, reports Xinhua news agency.

 

A total of 297 lawmakers participated in the roll-call vote.

It projects 2.5 per cent GDP (gross domestic product) growth next year up from 1.6 per cent for this year and a 3.8 per cent of GDP primary surplus for 2018 up from 2.4 per cent forecast for 2017.

Both estimates are higher than the targets set by the current three-year bailout programme which expires in 2018.

Addressing the plenary shortly before the roll call vote, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras argued that the 2018 budget heralds the post-bailout era and Greece's return to normalcy.

"The country will honour the commitments it has made towards its creditors and will achieve a stable and lasting access to the international markets at favourable rates," he said.

The debt-ridden country has been shut out by international markets since 2010, when it resorted to the first bailout to avoid disorderly default.

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Greek parliament ratifies 2018 state budget

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Doraiah Chowdary Vundavally is a Software engineer at VTech . He is the news editor of SocialNews.XYZ and Freelance writer-contributes Telugu and English Columns on Films, Politics, and Gossips. He is the primary contributor for South Cinema Section of SocialNews.XYZ. His mission is to help to develop SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgement towards any.

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