Greek flag on the parliament in Athens
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) has contributed with his hard line toward the government in Athens to reduce Greece’s debt burden at the beginning considerably. As the statistical office Eurostat announced in Luxembourg on Wednesday, the total debt of the Greek State was still in the first quarter at 168.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
This was 8.3 percentage points less than in the final quarter of 2014. The main reason for the decline is the done under pressure from the euro area countries remittance idle funds for the support of Greek banks to the euro rescue fund EFSF.
The remittance was in February of the agreement on the extension of the second Greek aid program until the end of June. Athens had 10.9 billion euros, which still lay in the Greek banking aid fund HFSF, transferred back to the European rescue fund EFSF time. Among other things, Schäuble had then demanded to withdraw the funds the immediate access of the end of January had come into office under the government leftist Alexis Tsipras.
Greek debt falls more than German
The Greek debt had fallen mainly due to the repayment of loans in the first quarter, Eurostat said a spokeswoman on request. “The majority were loans from the EFSF to the HFSF to recapitalize banks and Banking.” Apart from these 10.9 billion euros was the rest of the debt reduction came about “almost exclusively” by repayments of loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In absolute terms, Greece’s debt Eurostat decreased from quarter to quarter according to 15.5 billion euros to 301.5 billion euros.
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Even if Greece’s debt burden is still the highest in the EU in terms of economic output, developed Athens balance so positive against the general trend. Because on average rose in both the euro zone and in the EU the total debt: For the 19 countries in the monetary union, it rose by 0.9 points to 92.9 percent of GDP in the 28 EU countries by 1.3 points to 88.2 percent.
In Germany, the debt was reduced but also – albeit only by 0.5 points to 74.4 percent of economic output. The German debt even
And in absolute terms grew slightly to 2.1759 trillion euros.
aid package intended in second half of August are
Meanwhile, it was announced that international donors seek an agreement on the planned third bailout package in the second half of August with Greece. “The negotiations (…) have just started and are us, I guess, lead into the second half of August,” said EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici on Wednesday in Brussels.
The new aid package for Athens will comprise up to 86 billion euros and extend over a period of three years. In return, Greece has to implement a series of reforms and austerity measures as tax and pensions. Donors from European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have a Memorandum of Understanding (“Memorandum of Understanding” / MoU) to negotiate. They shall define the conditions of the grant and the details of the loan agreement fixed.
European Commissioner Moscovici did not mention a specific date, which is aimed at. He expressed confidence that the Greek parliament would such demands even adopt this Wednesday a series of reforms. “After months of deadlock we now are making good progress,” Moscovici said.
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