Press reports in Athens on Thursday, hours before a crucial Eurogroup meeting the same day, cite a document from a completed EuroWorking Group (EWG) meeting welcoming the Greek government’s commitment to maintaining ambitious primary budget surplus above 3.5 percent of GDP after 2022.
The initial report, by the Athens daily “Kathimerini”, comes as the EWG results were conveyed to Eurozone finance ministers (the Eurogroup venue) for their approval, with Greek debt relief, a prospective “cash cushion” for Greece’s post-memorandum period as the scope of creditors’ supervision after August 2018 on the agenda.
Over a period extending to far-off 2060, an analysis by the EU demonstrates that such a prospect would mean that the average primary budget surplus figure that successive Greek government would have to achieve would be 2.2 percent of GDP.
The same EWG document also reportedly states that gross borrowing to service the debt must remain under 15 percent of GDP, in the medium term, and below 20 percent in the long term.
Additionally, the EWG cites an agreement dating from May 2016 for a mechanism (“cutter”) that is activated in case of the worst-case scenario.
