Greek economy minister sees second review wrapped up by end-November
Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis appeared confident on Tuesday that Greece would wrap up the second bailout review by international creditors by the end of the month, adding that he does not foresee additional measures in the future.
Speaking on Real FM, Stathakis said that “the first week of negotiations went very well. The issues have been defined and areas where there is convergence and those where further negotiation is required have been identified. I believe that the second review will reasonably close within the given timeline, by the end of November.”
Stathakis said that the Greek side and lenders are “very close to an agreement” on the issue of an out-of-court mechanism allowing overindebted companies to settle their arrears to banks and the state, which would wrap up the issue of nonperforming loans.
The minister assured that “all fiscal measures through 2018 have already been passed, so there is no question of additional measures,” adding that the government is hitting all the targets set out for 2016 and 2017.
Asked to respond to a quarterly report published by Parliament’s Budget Office on Monday which suggested that estimates of growth of 2.7 percent of GDP in 2017 are over-ambitious, Stathakis responded that he believed the report’s findings to be exaggerated.
“We have to wait and see,” the minister said. “We already have two positive quarters in 2016 and we believe that the last quarter will also be in positive territory.”
