Towards an agreement with Troika on the primary surplus level

The Greek Finance Ministry and Troika are moving towards an agreement on the level of the primary surplus in this year's budget as well, after their convergence for the height of the recession.

If there are no twists in the current budget data, the primary surplus will amount to a little less than 500 million euros and the negotiations are expected to conclude by the end of the week to begin the discussion on the budget for 2014.

A senior agent of the Finance Ministry has given a brief idea for a "small, realistic and sustainable primary surplus," which will allow negotiations on any financial and budgetary gap for the next two years on better terms, but also on the issue of debt sustainability.

Regarding the recession, the Ministry said yesterday that the Greek government and Troika agreed that GDP will fall by 4% this year. The previous forecast by Troika was 4.2%, while the Ministry said 4.5%. In this negotiation, the Ministry had come with the optimistic forecast of a 3.8% decline, but Troika wanted to show that there should be no easing in the fiscal adjustment program.

The two sides have not yet reached a definitive agreement for the growth rate of the Greek economy in 2014, but officials said it is very likely to have an agreement for a change of the recession and GDP growth by 0.6%. However, Troika does not intend in the current period to change its stance on the rigorous implementation of the agreed measures.