DER SPIEGEL: 20 Billion Euro Shortfall in Greek Budget. Claims Denied

Does the Greek budget have a black hole of 200 billion euro? German weekly DER SPIEGEL claimed so, citing troika sources who spoke under condition of anonymity. Greece denied such reports on possible budget shortfall, while Germany urged to wait for the Troika report.

Spiegel: 20 billion euro black hole in the Greek budget

According to troika’s data there is a 20 billion euro black hole in the Greek budget in order to meet the requirements for an emergency bailout.

In its electronic version German magazine Der Spiegel writes that this amount is double the initial estimates and therefore Greece will receive the next tranche of the loan only when it manages to close its deficit, protothema.gr reported.

Eurozone officials admit that the rescue plan of 173 billion euros, is already far off target. It should be noted that Greece is being expecting the next tranche of the package, of about 31 billion euros, from June, while at the same time the recession is larger than initially estimated.

According to the German article, PM Antonis Samaras has asked several times if the creditors of Greece, including the ECB, would be willing to write off part of the country’s debt.

There is also some dispute between the German government and the European Commission as to when they will decide whether to give more aid to Greece. The Commission wants the decision to be taken in mid-October, while Germany believes that reliable data will only be available no sooner than November.

Members of the Greek Finance ministry indicate that at this time the budget deficit in Greece is 13.5 billion euros. After the agreement with troika, 11.5 billion will come from reduction in State expenditure and 2 billion from revenues.” (Capital.gr)

Martin Kotthaus, spokesman of German Finance ministry dismissed also the Spiegel report saying that one has to wait for the Torika report first:

“Mr. Kotthaus also threw cold water on a report in Der Spiegel that said Greece would need an additional €20 billion to meet its financing targets under the conditions of its current €173 billion bailout program. He said it was no surprise that Greece would miss its targets but that it wasn’t possible to discuss any figures for the country until the troika commission of experts from the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund release their assessment of the economy and the government’s implementation of the bailout program.” (WSJ)

The German government has “no reliable data” to make any assessment of Greece’s ability to pay its bills, said Mr. Kotthaus.