After seven months of tough negotiations between the Greek government and the representatives of the country’s lenders, the Troika, a deal was sealed on Tuesday. Right after the deal, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras held a press conference where he announced where and how the primary surplus will be distributed among several groups of the austerity-ridden and tax-hit Greek society.
Distribution of “primary surplus”
PM Antonis Samaras announced to distribute part of the primary surplus primarily to vulnerable groups of the society:
- 500 million euro to one million Greeks according to income criteria. This is expected to happen in May and paid once.
- Distribution of unspecified amount to uniformed personnel with monthly salary below 1,500 euro.
- 3.9% reduction of social contributions both to employees and employers as of 1. July 2014. Contributions to social security will be reduced from 44% down to 40%. “The employee will pay 94€ instead of €100, the employers will pay €89 instead of €100 for example,” PM Samaras said during his live press conference.
- 20 million euro will be given to charities and foundations providing services to the homeless.
- At least €1 billion will be used from the state to pay its outstanding debts to private companies.
- Part of primary surplus will be used to pay back the country’s debt.
“There will be no additional austerity measures,” Samaras announced.
A staff-level agreement, that is a technical level agreement, is expected to be officially sealed in the afternoon.
PS I suppose, the Troika decided to facilitate Samaras to give some pre-elections presents to the poor, considering the risk factors a SYRIZA-win would bring to the loan agreements.
