Stournaras to the Eurogroup: We are doing better without the Troika

The Greek Ministry of Finance sent Troika a new mid-term program for 2014-2017, including only the data and estimates the Greek side, as the communication with the auditors is still being carried out from a distance and in many issues they avoid to answer openly and with specific figures.

Yannis Stournaras will present these figures on Monday at Eurogroup as “positive surprises” (with the primary surplus and lower than expected recession at the lead), to prove to his Europeans counterparts that Greece does better "without the Troika."

But because lenders have not gotten a single progress report from the auditors for the past five months, the European challengers of Greece again find room to express their reservations.

European officials wonder why the Greek government is in a hurry to measure the primary surplus, refusing to say a good word publicly, now that everything shows that the essential aim for zero deficits has been reached, regardless the final amount of the surplus.

Approximately 100 days before the European elections and the Greek Finance Minister and Eurogroup president, in Dijsselbloem’s place (as Ecofin chairman) is prepared for a negative clmate in the meeting of the eurozone, as the Troika has not returned in Greece.
 
The messages arriving in Athens show that the auditors will return again by the middle of next week. The cautious approach of Greece’s lenders that continue to challenge the «success story» of the Greek government is causing anxiety and frustration in Athens.