The Eurogroup on Friday voiced satisfaction over the bloc's fiscal outcomes as no member states' draft budgetary plan came in serious non-compliance with regulations.
In a statement, the Eurogroup noted that member states with deficit close to 3 percent of GDP in 2013 are expected to see drops below the level in 2014.
"Both the debt and deficit projections for the euro area are considerably more positive than for other major economies, including the United States and Japan," Eurogroup added.
Meanwhile, the Eurogroup stressed that setting correct priorities for fiscal policies will lay the foundations for improving bloc's growth and the nascent recovery.
"Structural reforms for growth an essential and no less important complement to fiscal consolidation, as we will continue to stress," said European Union commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn at press a conference.
Under the current regulations, called Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and Medium Term Objective(MTO), eurozone countries' debt and deficit must not exceed 60 percent and 3 percent of GDP respectively.
"We therefore invite those Member States whose plans are at risk of non-compliance with the rules of the SGP to take measures as appropriate within their national budgetary processes or in parallel to that, to address the risks identified by the Commission and to ensure full compliance of the 2014 budget with the SGP rules," the Eurogroup said.
Source: Xinhua
