Brussels, 17/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Eurozone finance ministers will begin discussing ways of reducing the Greek debt burden in August 2014, explained the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, on arrival at the Eurogroup meeting on Monday 17 February.
“If the current programme and all the conditions are fulfilled, then further disbursements can take place before May, that will finance Greece right into August”, he added. In May, Greece needs to pay a debt instalment of some €11 billion. In order to receive the next batch of aid, the Greek government will need to reach agreement with the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) to conclude the fourth monitoring mission (which began in September, but has been interrupted three times).
Once Eurostat has published the primary budget surplus (not including debt servicing) for Greece in 2013, talks will start on reducing the Greek debt burden. “There's no reason to rush on the basis of the Eurostat figures, which will only come out at the end of April. In August, we'll talk about the future”, said Dijsselbloem. The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, stated in an article in To Vima at the weekend: “The primary budget surplus is much higher than we had initially estimated ... I am telling you now that it exceeds €1.5 billion, three times as big as we initially calculated”. (EL/transl.fl)