The Minister of Finances Yannis Stournaras is expecting to face some hard questions by his colleagues at the upcoming Eurogroup session that is scheduled for the 27th of January, in order to convince the troika to return to Athens and complete its review.
Earlier in the week the Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is presiding over the Eurogroup, accused Mr. Stournaras of delaying the troika’s return to Athens and argued that Greece has not yet fulfilled its obligations and commitments in order to collect the loan installments. The Greek Finance Minister responded that while there are a number of prior actions still pending, Mr. Dijsselbloem himself praised Greece on the progress of reforms.
According to the electronic exchange between the troika representatives and the Ministry of Finances, Greece’s creditors have demanded further measures in order to cover the 1.5 billion euro fiscal gap estimated for 2014 and a further 3 billion euros for 2015.
So far the troika has rejected the Greek side’s proposed alternative measures worth 300 million euros in order to keep the 13% VAT rate and has predicted a 400-million-euro shortfall in the new real estate tax. Furthermore the government will have to address the troika demands of deregulating dismissals and covering the estimated 800 million euro shortfall from the planned employer insurance contributions reduction.
Additionally the government will have to div out how to cover the returns to uniformed officers, after the State Council ruled that the 12% wage cuts they suffered were unconstitutional. The Deputy Minister of Finances Christos Staikouras has estimated that the 2014 budget could be burdened with about 1 billion euros.
