Brussels, 14/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 14 July, the Greek Finance Ministry announced that Greece had exceeded its budgetary targets for the first half of the year, registering a primary surplus of €712 million, against a target of a deficit of €635 million. “The budgetary targets have been reached for the third consecutive year”, said Christos Staikouras, Deputy Finance Minister.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had said in early July that the country was doing better than anticipated and that there would be no budget gap in 2014 and probably not in 2015 either (see EUROPE 11114).
At the same time, the country is making progress in the implementation of the specific milestones for the payment of a further tranche of €1 billion from the eurozone. Last week, the Greek parliament approved the privatisation of 30% of the public energy company, Public Power Corporation (PPC). At an extraordinary session on 11 July, it was decided that no referendum would be held on the subject, as called for by the opposition party Syriza. According to the Greek press, the liberalisation of the energy party was to be the subject of discussions on Monday between a troika technical team and Greek Energy Minister Yiannis Maniatis. (EL)