“Full speed ahead” for 9.2 billion euros by the end of June

Finmin Yannis Stournaras wants to turn the disbursement of tranches to Greece in a formality and, against expectations of Wolfgang Schäuble goes to Brussels to convince the European finance ministers that Greece is entitled to much more than the 4.2 billion euros of the first quarter tranche that eurogroup is expected to approve.

The meeting starts at 2 pm and the Greek side wants to regain lost ground in tranche payments, with a decision that will open the way to receive the June tranche of 3.2 billion euros for the second quarter from the EU. So the "package" will rise to 7.4 billion euros, and along with the 1.8 billion from the IMF that will be released on May 31, the government looks to receive a total of  9.2 billion by end June or early July.

Beyond that, Greece will be waiting only for some small tranches for current expenses and liabilities of 0.7 billion euros in September and 2.4 billion euros in December by the EU, and an additional 1.8+1.8 billion respectively from the IMF, for a total of 52.3 billion euros it has received in the first semester.

Moreover, the Greek government wants to ask for more time to pay off bonds held by European central banks and will have to be paid by the end of the month. The next move is to ask for the reduction of interest rates or a direct debt remission by European governments, which European Commission, IMF and ECB seems to favor, but Berlin does not.

Yannis Stournaras’ “weapons” in this battle are the three texts to be examined and approved by the eurogroup:

-       the European Commission's report in relation to the last troika audit

-       the memorandum updating

-       the progress report on the implementation of the prerequisites (public sector reforms, medicine prices)

Stournaras will inform his counterparts for the immediate objectives of the Greek government to seek a VAT reduction in catering from 23% to 13%, reduction in the transfer tax on real estate 50%, and possibly a decrease in the excise tax on heating oil.