ATHENS (MNI) The Greek finance ministry and its official creditors
have now agreed to E9.5 billion in budget cutting measures out of a
total E11.5 billion required, a Finance Ministry official told MNI.
Negotiations are continuing, and the Greek authorities seem
confident that a final agreement will be reached by Sunday.
“We need to agree on spending cuts of E2 billion more in order to
conclude the plan,” the official said. He noted that the Greek
negotiators and their counterparts from the European Commission,
European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – the so-called
Troika — had signed off on E2 billion in additional measures today,
raising the total agreed from E7.5 billion to E9.5 billion. The new cuts
are to come from spending on health, defense and local governments, the
official said.
He cautioned that the final E2 billion will be “the toughest” to
negotiate, because the Troika officials insist it should come from a new
round of salary and pension cuts.
On Friday, Greek Finance Minister Giannis Stournaras told MNI that
the Troika is also asking for new revenues of E2 billion euros, which
is to come from a crackdown on tax evasion. This would raise the total
of deficit-reducing measures to be implemented to E13.5 billion.
–Athens bureau; apapmiltiadou@marketnews.com
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