Brussels, 14/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - The head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said after a Eurogroup meeting on Monday evening, 13 May, that the efforts of Greece were “tremendous and leading to results”.
The eurozone decided that enough had been done by Greece for them to finalise the national endorsement of payment of a total of €7.5 billion to the country. Klaus Regling, the director general of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), said that the payment would be made in two instalments. The first instalment of €4.2 billion, needed next week, will be submitted for approval to the EFSF board and as long as “all prior actions are met, and national procedure completed, then the board of directors will decide to release it.” The second instalment, of €3.3bn, will be paid in June “because not all the money is needed” now and the second disbursement will in any case “require some milestones” to be reached.
The Eurogroup welcomed the fact that the budget targets were achieved in 2012 and that Greece is now expected to remain on track in 2013 and 2014. In a report published on Monday, the Commission forecast that the country's primary budget, in other words not including the cost of servicing the debt, would be in equilibrium in 2013 and show a slight surplus in 2014 (1.5% of national GDP). The Commission says further work will be needed to achieve a primary surplus of 3% in 2015 and 4.5% in 2016.
Dijsselbloem said the eurozone had welcomed measures taken to improve tax collection and encouraged Greece to keep up the good work in order to ensure fair distribution of effort.
A troika report (European Commission, ECB and IMF) obtained by Reuters says that privatisations are still being delayed. The privatisation targets have reportedly been reduced from €2.6 billion to €2bn. The Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, is confident that Greece will be able to borrow from the money markets unaided in 2015, but the troika says it will be several years yet before this is possible.
Greece has to repay €5.6 billion on Monday 20 May in maturing sovereign bonds. The Greek debt management agency, PDMA, says that it raised €1.3bn in three-month treasury bonds on Tuesday at a slightly lower rate than last month (4.02% compared with 4.05%). This is one of the regular emissions made by Greece to cover running costs. (EL/transl.fl)