Papaconstantinou: No new economic measures for Greece

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said that the country has secured all tranches of an EU/IMF loan -worth 110 billion euros. Speaking to reporters, after completion of a 10-day inspection visit by troika experts in Athens, the Greek minister said the country will dismiss all negative predictions and noted that "a first assessment of our economic program is positive, there is no new memorandum, no new measures. We will take the third tranche as well. We will take all tranches".

Papaconstantinou said "the first round has ended", but efforts continued focusing mainly on structural reforms. He named 10 structural changes to be implemented by the end of the year: new tax administration for combating tax evasion, a new state budget, controlling spending and overspending in hospitals and health costs, changes in civil administration and regional authorities, opening up markets and closed professions (lawyers, engineers, architects, pharmacies, accountants, etc), restructuring Hellenic Railways and public sector enterprises, promoting privatizations, better management of the state's real estate, changes in the banking system, a new business environment and strengthening the competitiveness and inspection of prices.

Based on a timetable, the troika will release in early September an updated technical report on the Greek economy. In September 10, the IMF's board will meet to approve the release of the fund's participation in the second tranche of the loan. A similar decision is expected by an ECOFIN meeting in September 7. The second tranche, worth 9.0 billion euros, will be released September 13-15. The next official assessment of the Greek economy will be held by the end of October.