The Minister of Finance of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, admitted several concessions to international creditors, a post on your blog in the day that meets the Eurogroup in Riga for talks on the plan Greece reforms that lenders want to see before giving the final tranche of the loan.
Varoufakis notes that “Greece and its European and international partners have already agreed to a lot.” “The current disagreement with our partners can be overcome,” he says. Thus, his government is ready to concessions that before did not include: “rationalize the pension system (limiting, for example, early retirement), continue to partial privatization of public assets, creating a completely independent fiscal commission”
The minister also says that “the tax system has to be changed, and the authorities free of political influence and business” – one of the last responsible for the tax system resigned last year after saying . It had been the target of threats and political pressure
But draws a red line on what you can do, “the labor market was devastated by the crisis and is deeply segmented, without productivity growth,” added Varoufakis , stressing that it is not possible to carry out more cuts in wages and pensions, as lenders want.
also rejected what he called as “the trap of austerity”, by linking the budgetary targets of a predetermined target debt ratio to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Instead, the Greek finance minister proposes “a long-term plan based on reasonable expectations in relation to primary surpluses consistent with growth rates and expansion of exports which would stabilize the Greek economy and the debt-GDP”.
The meeting in Riga of responsible finance ministers of the euro zone on Friday was regarded as the deadline for an agreement between Greece and the troika of creditors, but the hopes were decrescendeo in recent weeks and no one had expected to leave here a consensus
The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, repeated on arrival which has said lately:. that there were very few expectations for an agreement on this meeting, or during the month of April. Some sources anticipated a possible exceptional Eurogroup meeting before the end of the month, other said that this meeting would result just as expected in May, already after Athens have had to pay another installment of the loan to the IMF when its coffers are empty (signal this was the controversial measure of the Executive Alexis Tsipras to force local authorities to surrender any cash reserves to the central bank).
emergency sensation
Despite all statements that there was an imminent agreement, the markets were reacting with optimism to the possibility of an agreement later when the media begin to mention more and more as the date of the deadline no longer in May but July when Greece has to pay a great benefit to the European Central Bank.
If you can not pay, there is the possibility of a “Greek accident” in which a breach of a payments would lead to a Greek exit from the euro not purposeful, but in a case where the negotiations dragged and neither side gave in expecting a last minute volte-face on the other. But also more and more economists anticipate a chance to be able to keep Greece in the euro even in default.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met with the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, the margins an extraordinary meeting on migrants arriving by boat to Europe and die in the Mediterranean, said only that “we must do everything to avoid” a Greek default scenario.
The leader of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said “there is a great sense of urgency,” although that does not mean an agreement at the meeting on Friday. However, commented, “I hope there is progress and then we’ll see what they bring in the next few weeks.”
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