Tsakalotos suggests no medium-term plan until review is completed

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos suggested on Wednesday that the government would not complete the preparation of the Medium-Term Fiscal Strategy (MTFS) until the second bailout review has been wrapped up, possibly toward the end of the year.

Speaking in Parliament , Tsakalotos indicated that the economic plan, which was originally due to be submitted to the House in May, will only be finished after an agreement is reached on the primary surplus targets Greece has to hit in the years to come.

“It is still under discussion, pending the International Monetary Fund’s decision on whether the debt relief measures proposed by Europe will be enough,” he told MPs. “There is a discussion regarding what primary surplus we are going to include for 2019. We have to examine this after an agreement [on the review] has been reached.”

The government has recently been arguing that Greece will not be able to continue producing a 3.5 percent primary surplus for several years in a row after 2018. Athens wants the lenders to agree to a lowering of the target for the period after 2018, when the current program expires, but the institutions have been reluctant to discuss this issue.

Tsakalotos also insisted yesterday that the government would not need to take any extra measures this year to meet its fiscal target.