Satisfaction after Stournaras’ meeting with Schäuble

At his meeting in Berlin with German counterpart Wolfgang Schäuble, Finance minister Yannis Stournaras discussed the next steps for the tranche of 31 billion euros and the extension of the stabilization program by 2 years.

According to information on protothema.gr, Schäuble noted that the Troika report on the state of the Greek economy and the progress of the reforms will be released in early October, in order to be handed to the finance ministers of the Eurozone at the October 14 eurogroup.

If everything goes smoothly, the so-called super installment of 31 billion euros is expected to be disbursed around the end of October.

Reliable information says that Schäuble and Stournaras discussed the request for an extension, as the Greek minister raised a number of issues, such as the great recession that has hit the Greek economy and its impact on the efforts to return to growth, and also the issue of increasing the Greek Gross Domestic Product through investment, in order to supply the growth process.

According to other information, Schäuble expressed his satisfaction about the package of measures processed by the economic team of the Greek government and informally gave the go-ahead to proceed with its application.

The meeting took place in a good atmosphere and the German side seems satisfied with the presentation of the priorities and commitments undertaken by Greece.

The question is whether Berlin is able to publicly express its satisfaction with the steps taken by the Greek government in the economic sector at this juncture, with the Greek crisis being the subject of German domestic policy debate and Merkel's government being criticized because of its continuing support to Greece. According to the same information, Stournaras and Schäuble agreed to keep a low profile and avoid statements for tactical reasons too.