The Greek government and creditors’ top auditors have reportedly reached an agreement to finally close out negotiations, after 12 hours of talks held on Monday at a downtown Athens hotel, with the final deal including cuts to supplementary pensions for medium-income beneficiaries.
The proposed decrease for medium-income pensioners receiving supplementary social security benefits reaches 9 percent, while the maximum decrease in primary and supplementary pensions in some cases will reach 18 percent.
“We have an agreement that the Greek government is called upon to implement with laws or (ministerial) decisions,” Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said in the early morning hours of Tuesday. He added that the discussion over the sustainability of the Greek debt now begins.
As in previous such statements when announcing more austerity measures, Tsakalotos said the agreement includes measures that “sadden us”, but also positive points, such as countervailing measures, as he said.
The UK-based academic turned Greek leftist politician also repeated that no measures for 2018 were requested, with the latest round of austerity measures to begin in 2019 – the year that general elections are scheduled to take place.
Finally, he confirmed earlier reports that Sunday store hours were further deregulated in “tourist regions”, whereas the tourist season, to accommodate more open hours on Sundays was extended.
Ministry also said the tax-free income threshold will drop to between 5,700 and 6,600 euros, as of 2020, which was the long-standing target. Currently, the tax-free income level for taxpayers is at 8,600 annually. When vying for power before the January 2015 election, then main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras had promised to raise the level to 12,000.
A date of May 13 was given for the ratification of the austerity package in Parliament, in order to meet the May 22 Eurogroup meeting.
In immediate reactions after the announcement, most opposition parties referred to a “fourth memorandum” without accompanying financing or growth potential.
