Greece expected to miss primary surplus target this year, says BoG governor

Greece could miss a primary surplus target agreed with its lenders this year, its central bank chief said on Tuesday, less than a week after the European Commission expressed misgivings over tax breaks announced by the outgoing government.

Yiannis Stournaras, governor of the Bank of Greece, said the country was likely to achieve a budget surplus, excluding debt servicing costs, of 2.9 percent of gross domestic product, undershooting a 3.5 percent target set by lenders.

Stournaras was speaking at an investment conference in Athens.

Greece's leftist SYRIZA administration introduced a bonus to pensioners and tax cuts last month, days before European Parliament elections which the party went on to lose to the conservative opposition New Democracy. That defeat prompted Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to call a snap election for July 7, four months before the end of...