The Greek team and creditors will try to reach a draft deal by Monday on the content of the measures Athens has to take in order to close the bailout program evaluation.
“We had progress in almost all the issues and have kept some things for Sunday, or early Monday morning,” Finance Minister Euclid TsakalotosĀ told reporters Ā at 2:30 am, coming out of the 10-hour meeting with the mission chiefs of creditors.
The finance minister said there was progress in the issues of security funds, bad loans and the 1 percent of GDP fiscal measures that need to be taken in order to close the 2017 and 2018 fiscal gaps.
However, a government official said earlier that there is still a “great distance” that needs to be covered on bad loans. At the same time, Labor Minister Giorgos Katrougalos had said earlier that lenders “want blood” on the issue of supplementary pensions.
Regarding non performing loans, talks move around the period of protection before their sale to distress funds. Lenders also want the sale of performing loans, according to a finance ministry source. Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras was also present in the bad loans discussion.
Finally, there are still differences on the measures worth 1.8 billion euros, or 1 percent of GDP, Athens needs to take in order to achieve the 3.5 percent of GDP target for 2018. The package of proposed measures includes mainly indirect taxes and spending cuts. Among the measures considered in this context is a tax hike on alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco products.
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