Anxiety as to what more the lenders will ask for

The Greek government will complete the enactment of measures that were a prerequisite to receive the 130 billion from our lenders with an elastic multi-bill, which will constantly change until its submission in parliament today. Thus, it will calm the foreign inspectors arriving in the coming days in order to avoid greater pressure for additional measures to meet the shortfalls in the program so far.

The biggest "thorns" that occupied yesterday’s preparatory meeting between PM Lucas Papademos and finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, as well as deputy ministers F. Sachinidis and P. Oikonomou, are:

- the shortfall in revenue of the 2011 budget, which exceeds 1.3 billion
- the derailment of the budget deficit in 2011, which exceeds 10% of the GDP
- the negotiations for the exchange of Greek bonds
- the multi-bill with the new measures that is being filed today in parliament

The suspense is rising as to whether additional measures will be needed to cover the revenue shortfalls of 1.3 billion. According to figures from the finance ministry, 50 billion euros were received in 2011, against a revised annual target of 51.3 billion. Equally important is the deviation of revenue compared with 2010. Instead of increasing by 0.9%, which was the objective for 2011, it decreased by 1.7% on an annual basis.

This year's goal for collection of 1 billion euros from the special property fee by February, which will be recorded as  2011 revenue, is considered critical.

The government will cite the difficulty of implementing the reforms of the multi-bill to be submitted today in parliament as regards the deregulation of road transportation, the establishment of law firms and the new setting for overdue debts, as a stronghold against further pressure for measures, as well as in relation to the fate of private sector wages.