SOTIRIS NIKAS

In its efforts to reach a compromise with the creditors for the completion of the second bailout review, the government is examining a scenario whereby the automatic fiscal mechanism agreed last year (aka “the cutter”) would also include the reduction of the tax-free threshold and pensions.

The issue of short-term measures for easing the Greek debt, which were frozen in response to the government’s unilateral decision to pay pensioners a Christmas bonus, has been put off until the Euro Working Group meeting on January 12.

The International Monetary Fund issued a clear message on Thursday that Athens must take new, tough measures to achieve a primary surplus target of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2018, which sources say add up to 4.3 billion euros.

The Finance Ministry is on Monday to present Parliament with the final draft of the 2017 budget, which provides for a primary surplus above that of the first draft due to the continued overperformance of state revenues.

Berlin’s immediate response to US President Barack Obama’s call for Greek debt relief was to pour cold water on Athens’s aspirations, but the head of the Eurogroup did not rule out the possibility of a discussion next month on midterm debt relief measures.

The government and the country’s creditors have three landmark dates ahead of them in their effort to strike a staff-level agreement for the second review of Greece’s third bailout.