Prime Minister George Papandreou on Tuesday was briefed by Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou on the progress made in implementing the Greek government’s now closely watched Stability and Growth Programme (SGP).
Emerging from the meeting, Papaconstantinou again reiterated that the government was determined to do everything necessary in order to achieve the programme’s targets, stressing that the goal of reducing the public deficit by four percentage points in 2010 was “non-negotiable”.
Moreover, Papaconstantinou was again asked if the government intended to take additional measures, to which he responded that any decisions will be announced after Greece has concluded discussions with its European partners.
In the meantime, he said talks with team of the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff currently in the country were focused on achieving the SGP targets and possible problems that might arise in this effort.
The team, which arrived in Athens on Monday evening to review the course of implementation of Greece’s Stability and Growth Program, met shortly after their arrival with Bank of Greece officials, while they will also meet with employment ministry officials during visit, which runs through Thursday.
The team will also examine the additional measures that have been announced by Prime Minister George Papandreou, and will prospectively recommend the adoption of more measures if deemed necessary for attaining the target of reducing the country’s fiscal deficit by 4 percentage points of GDP by the end of the year.
Papapconstantinou added said that Greece was currently on a positive course in terms of implementing the budget and keeping spending in check, while discussions with Community officials are focused on what is termed as ‘dangers’ and the government was trying to ensure that its policy had convinced its EU partners.
