tagged: 6th tranche, bailout, default, emergency taxes, eurogroup, Greece, liquidity, mid-November, press conference, Venizelos

FinMin: “No Liquidity Problem till Mid-November”, Provided Greeks Pay The Emergency Taxes

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy

Aha! Now we know. We don’t need the sixth bailout tranche as soon as possible. As long as Greek taxpayers are large, we can wait. There will be no delays in salaries and pension payments in October. That was said more or less by Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos during a press conference on Tuesday noon. Venizelos spoke and spoke and at the end he threw the ball in the hands of the Greek taxpayers. “We have liquidity until Mid-November, provided the citizens join and support the national effort” Venizelos stressed and implied that if the taxpayers pay their extra solidarity contributions, trade fees and emergency property taxes, the state will be able to meet its duties. 

This is the one side of the logic. The other side of the coin and thus for the average pensioner/civil servant might be: Should I give the state lets’ say 1,000 euro now so I can get my pension/salary of 600-700 in October? Or should I keep my money to come along  this month and wait until the next tranche is here in November, when I will get a double pension salary?

Furthemore, Venizelos blamed the major opposition party as responsible for the delays in the structural reforms of the government. “The problem is, the delays are because Nea Dimokratia does not give its consent to the reforms”, said Venizelos with a directly hint to the opening of taxi profession. Taxi Confederation president is said to support ND…

While Venizelos swept away all responsibility from his jacket, last week To VIMA claimed in its online edition that the Troika showed the “red card” to seven ministers for failing to meet their targets. Troika’s criticism refers to delays in cutting expenditures, in the new payroll for civil servants, for not cutting hiring in the army and the police academies, for not cutting expenses for attending committees meetings, for bonuses and compensations in public sector and state-run enterprises, for not cutting expenditures in state hospitals, delays in the implementation of the electronic prescription medication.

The Troika is keen on full application of the public sector hiring rule “1:10″ for 2011 and 1:5 for next year. During the current year, 8,300 people were hired and 34,851 people got temporary work contracts!

          All I can say is “Aie aie aie aie aie aie ….. Puerto Rico” e Madre mia!

The 6th-Tranche Eurogroup meeting will be held October 17-18, 2011.

Venizelos also said that the Greek banking system is secured, Greece would always belong to the euro and that there is absolutley no discussion about a Greek default.

Video: so… Puerto Rico!