Greece called for international creditors not to enforce further austerity measures as they began a fresh audit of the country’s finances on Sunday.
Monitors from the so-called “troika” of international lenders — the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank — were set to start their latest inspection of the Greek economy by meeting Finance minister Yannis Stournaras.
The audit will determine the release of a scheduled one billion euro ($1.4 bn) loan installment from Greece’s ongoing bailout.
“The main goal is to avoid new (austerity) measures,” said the Sunday edition of liberal daily Kathimerini.
Another newspaper, weekly To Vima, warned that adopting “even one new measure will cause political cracks” for the Greek government.
These calls followed a similar one from prime minister Antonis Samaras in Brussels last week in which he was adamant that Athens would not adopt any further austerity measures.
“Whatever gap emerges for 2015 and 2016 will be covered by structural changes… not through new (austerity) measures,” he was quoted by Kathimerini.
The auditors are expected to inspect the restructuring of the public sector, the drafting of a new property tax as well as efforts to privatize three ailing state industries, mining company LARKO, truck manufacturer ELVO and defense contractor EAS.
(source: eubusiness)
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