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National Bank of Greece director Georgos Provopoulos presented the fiscal report of the country in front of the National Assembly and said that immediate finance measures and effective structural changes need to be done in the fields of social security, state administration and tax system.

Basis in Provopoulos’ plan is decreasing the state deficit with 5% from the GDP—in other words, his plan is the deficit to become 7% of the GDP until the end of 2011. The difference between the plans of the National Bank and the ministry of economy is that the ministry is planning to decrease the deficit with 7% for three years.

In real number, 5% of the GDP means saving €12.5 million, mainly by cutting state expenses, undertaking strict measures regarding tax violations and frauds. On the other hand, the National Bank director does not recommend increasing taxes for the ordinary tax payer, because this would worsen the situation of the market.

The report says that by the end of this year the GDP is expected to fall with 1%, which will affect increase the unemployment level in 2010. The level of giving credit has reached only 4% out of the expected 10% and it is way lower in comparison to the same period in 2008, when the percentage was 15.9.

The percentage of unpaid credit has increased with 6.8% during the first six months of this year. The monetary value of this percentage is €17 billion and experts note that until the end of the year this index can reach 10% or €25 billion. During the first six months of 2008 the index was lower with 1.8% or 5%.