Greece, Troika Back To The Table

The on-again, off-again talks between Greece and its international lenders to reach an agreement over implementing more reforms and filling a budget hole of as much as 2.9 billion euros ($3.87 billion) are now set to resume again on Nov. 17 – coinciding with annual demonstrations marking the overthrow of the military junta in 1974.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, who has downplayed reports of a rift between the two sides over the size of the gap – he puts it at only 500 million euros ($674 million) – said he’d be back at it trying to persuade them Greece is better off than they believe and doesn’t need any more austerity measures either.
On the agenda for this meeting reportedly are demands by the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) that Greece should close down its two money-bleeding defense industries, deregulate products and services and speed the pace of privatizations which have lagged for more than three years.
After a meeting with Eurozone ministers in Brussels, Stournaras said only structural measures are needed, of about 1.3 billion euros ($1.75 billion) to fill a hole in the 2014 budget. He said those would be social insurance, reducing utility expenses, implementing mergers in healthcare and education and enforcing a unified payroll, none of which Greece has done in a string of broken pledges.
Without a deal with the Troika though the lenders are reluctant to release a pending one billion euros ($1.37 billion) installment and Eurozone chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said more progress is needed to finish prior actions, the budget gap, structural changes and privatizations.  He said that there was more of a political urgency rather than a financial one to complete the review, so that decisions can be made in December.
European Commissioner Olli Rehn said he recognized the “great efforts” of Greece and highlighted the importance of the fiscal reforms.  As usual, he ducked talking about specifics or the fiscal gap, since negotiations were still ongoing. The European Commissioner stressed that a more “efficient” privatization program and improvements in competition matters are important points of discussion.