A meeting of finance ministers of theThe Eurogroup has been convened for tomorrow at 15pm in Brussels to take a decision on Greece's loan extension application. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the European council.
This morning the government of Athens made it official that it had presented the request for a six-month extension of the programme of aid. The proposal is divided into several points and would provide for the reduction of the primary surplus budget, now expected at 3% in 2015 and 4,5% of GDP in 2016, at the more affordable 1,5 percent. The Greek government "rejects" without appeal the primary surplus of 4,5% of GDP, judging it as "artificial, without historical precedents and above all without support from any renowned economist".
The Tispras executive also asks to be able to use les to stabilize the banking system reserves, amounting to 8 billion euro, of the Hellenic Bank Stabilization Fund, so as to be able to reduce the burden of bank bad debts and restore credit to businesses. Athens also announces that it will hold back on privatisation verifying its feasibility for each project, and points out that out of the 50 billion euros provided by this source in the first bailout program of 2011, only 4,1 billion have been raised so far. An announced bankruptcy which, according to the Greek government, demonstrates "the "practical impossibility of draining resources to pay off the debt in the current Greek context" of deflation.
