Brussels, 27/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 26 July, a group of European Union and IMF (International Monetary Fund) experts opened discussions with Greece to assess progress in the country's financial recovery plan with a view to granting a further loan of €9 billion in September. The experts are expected to remain in Athens for two weeks.
According to the economic press, the experts will examine, in particular, the problem of revenue, which increased by 7.2% in the first six months of the year, rather than the 13.7% forecast, and also the debt of hospitals, local government and pubic sector companies (DEKO). This audit visit is part of the agreements, signed in May, between the government, the EU and the IMF granting Greece a €110 billion loan over three years in return for economic recovery which would reduce the public deficit from almost 14% of GDP to under 3% by 2014. Greece, which has to take its deficit down to 8.1% of GDP in 2010, already received €20 billion in May (€14.5 billion from the EU and €5.5 billion from the IMF) and is due to receive two further payments of €9 billion each (€6.5 billion from the EU and €2.5 billion from the IMF) in September and December. Greek Finance Minister Georgios Papaconstantinou has said on several occasions that he was confident that the second tranche of the loan will be paid in September. (L.C./transl.rt)