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Greece and Creditors Still Far Apart from Deal

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Greece’s international creditors spent the weekend studying the list of reforms the Greek government presented on Friday and sources from Brussels say that it may take one or two weeks before a final decision is made whether further financial aid would be released.
According to creditors’ representatives involved in the evaluation of Greek proposals, the pace is “slow but not worryingly so” because the Greek side is not providing sufficient information. So far, there have been disagreements over actual figures and the measures needed to achieve certain fiscal goals.
Athens is planning to gather 3 billion euros from raising taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, tackling tax evasion and specific privatizations. Greece estimates a 1.3% primary surplus and 1.5% growth. However, creditors disagree with these figures. They say these projections are typical for the Greek government in being too optimistic.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insists his government will not carry out any recessionary measures to cut wages, jobs or pensions, and revenues will be generated by tackling tax evasion and putting an end to corruption.
Creditors’ representatives in Brussels say there is still considerable vagueness in the Greek proposals, particularly in how revenues will be generated and the actual numbers of revenues. Yet, the cooperation between the two sides is smooth.
According to sources from Brussels, there will be two Euro Working Group (EWG) sessions in the next two weeks but the Eurogroup will convene only after there is a staff level agreement. Greece is in urgent need of funds as it is estimated that state coffers will be empty by the end of April if the 7.2 billion euros of bailout cash is not disbursed by then.

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