A shy positive signal comes from Greece. According to preliminary estimates of the Institute of Statistics Greek ELSTAT, gross domestic product grew in the second quarter by 0.8% from the previous quarter (-0.2%) and was boosted by 1.4% over the same period a year ago. Analysts’ expectations were for a decline of 0.5% qoq and 0.6% yearly.
On the table Eurogroup Meanwhile tomorrow there is, for Greece and the possibility of giving the green light the third rescue is the option of a new bridge loan: it is learned from EU sources that explain how both procedures have been already activated and ready to be applied. The Financial Times offers a background on a document in which the German Ministry of Finance “lists his objections cartel” and the title “Berlin throws sand in the gears of the agreement.”
Germany therefore continues to curb on the agreement with the creditors. The Hawks are not yet ready to close for holidays and to send Greece on vacation. Despite the agreement between the former government and Troika Tsipras on the new Memorandum, and the will of the Greeks to approve today more than 50 reforms, Germany is still reluctant to give its green light to the third rescue, so that the president of the eurogroup Ministers decided to convene in extraordinary session on Friday afternoon in Brussels to meet in person all the resistance and evaluate whether to proceed with a new bridge loan, deferring even the final ok.
The new Memorandum of Understanding with all the conditions for the more than 80 billion euro aid is ready, and it was accepted in full by the Greek authorities, who have also committed to anticipate most of the measures. Over 50 will already voted by Parliament today, ready to give his ok – net of stomach ache of deputies of SYRIZA – the pension reform which abolishes the baby, privatization and revision of collective bargaining. Taking even “reverse” of measures taken in recent months without consulting the Troika, like the abolition of collective redundancies that today return possible.
But the Memorandum, explaining European sources, not just austerity. Indeed, a criticism that one can not do more because it is a “hard pack but the sacrifices are equally distributed,” designed with great attention to the “social dimension, to mitigate the immediate impact of these measures,” so that also provides a scheme of minimum income in 2016.
In addition, due to the severe recession that the Greek economy will lose 2.3% of GDP this year and 1.3% next year , are revised fiscal targets, downsizing of the very target on surplus and assuming a deficit for 2015. Of course, some parts of the Memorandum are still poorly defined, and among them the one that Germany wanted insistently, that is the bottom Privatisation. It is not yet clear who will manage it and how, and what assets will end up in it to be sold. This absence weighs much for Berlin, along with the lack of clarity on the involvement of the IMF still has not decided when and in which way will contribute to the aid package. For that Merkel would continue to prefer, for now, a new bridge loan to allow Athens to honor its expiry with the ECB on August 20, giving more time to the EU to clarify these issues.
But Tsipras does not fit, convinced that he had done his part to the end, even going beyond what the Eurosummit asked him today by its Parliament will approve a package that European sources call “massive” reform, and as many him submit by October, when former Troika provides the first review of the program, which is subject to each tranche. That is why the Chancellor and the greek prime minister had a telephone confrontation, which some media even Germans have defined a real fight, though denied by the spokesman of Merkel. A comparison that still has not moved Berlin, ready again to say her ‘nein’ Eurogroup Friday.
This morning, while the Finance Ministry in Athens said that the budget deficit of Greece the first 7 months of the year, reached 1.02 billion euro, down from the government’s target of 1.37 billion. Central government revenue amounted to 26.7 billion euro, again lower than the target set by the executive to 30.8 billion.
Meanwhile, the climate in Parliament in Athens surriscala after the most extreme wing of Syriza, the party of Premier greek, promised to oppose in every way to the plan drawn up in Brussels, described as a “noose around the neck of the people greek”.
The content of the bill
Launch of the privatization of the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki and railroad State Trainose-Rosco. The Greek agency for privatization has announced today the deadline for submission of tenders: October 2015 to Piraeus, December 2015 to February 2016 and the railway to the port of Thessaloniki.
The announcement of ‘ Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund’s (HRADF) is based on the agreement reached between the government greek and its creditors, who will vote on the parliament in Athens in the coming hours.
Among the companies interested in Piraeus is in first line the Chinese group COSCO which currently manages the pier The harbor. Since 2009, the Piraeus Container
Terminal, a subsidiary of Cosco, manages the piers II and III on the basis of a concession from the last 35 years.
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