Driven by the need to reduce Greece's public deficit so that it meets eurozone criteria by the end of next year, Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis yesterday laid out the government's revised Stability and Growth Program - the blueprint for the course of the economy until 2007.

The principal focus of the program, which was submitted to the European Commission earlier this month, concerned reducing the deficit. According to the «realistic» scenario of the plan - one of three possible outcomes it forecast - the deficit will drop to 3.5 percent of GDP from 6.1 percent this year and then to 2.8 percent by the end of next year. This would bring Greece in line with the ceiling of 3 percent set for members of the eurozone.

In order to achieve this, Alogoskoufis said, Greece must halve its current deficit of 10.1 billion euros. One of the elements that will contribute to this, as set out in the program, is the expected reduction of government expenditure from 50.4 percent of GDP to 49 percent over the next two years.