An inspection team for Greece's international lenders will this week press the country to deliver on promises to make extra budget savings over the next three years and speed up privatisations. The EU and International Monetary Fund inspectors starting a three-day visit on Tuesday will scrutinise a draft 2012-2014 budget plan, a key condition of Greece's 110 billion euro ($156 billion) bailout.
Against a backdrop of concerns that fiscal shortfalls and persistent economic weakness might eventually force the country into a debt restructuring, they will also review how plans to target proceeds of 50 billion euros from privatisations are progressing. Greek officials have said that two thirds of the measures being considered for the 2012-2014 budget plan would focus on spending cuts and one third on revenue increases.
The country must overall achieve savings of about 8 percent of GDP in 2012-2014 to meet targets set by the lenders when they rescued Greece from bankruptcy last year. "The conditions are tough, the environment is adverse and uncertainties are big," central bank chief George Provopoulos told To Vima newspaper over the weekend.
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