Petalotis' 50-billon-euro "dribbles"

The third update of the Memorandum has been published by the Ministry of Finance. It contains detailed actions to be taken by the government in the quarterly evaluation period by the Troika, of the Greek economy.

Specifically, these actions relate to the fourth assessment (actions that must be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2011), the fifth (actions to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2011), the sixth (actions to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2011), the seventh (actions to be completed by the end of the fourth quarter of 2011) and the eighth assessment of the Greek economy (actions to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2012).

“The scaremongering relating to the 50 billion included in the Memorandum, was shot down with the launch of an updated Memorandum”, said government spokesman George Petalotis, when asked to comment on the subject. Mr. Petalotis noted that the Memorandum makes it quite clear that there is no target of 50 billion, and that the Commission’s report it is not referred to as an objective, but as the government’s intention to handle the Greek economy in such a way that by 2015 there will be an income of 50 billion.

“Not only is there no contradiction, but also there has been an update to the Memorandum, while the European Commission’s report is putting things in place”, he said, adding that it is quite clear that “the 15 billion target is included in the memorandum, but our will to include the target of 50-billion revenue by 2015 is recognized in the European Commission’s report”.