Measures taken in Greece’s fiscal adjustment program from 2010 until present amount to 49 billion euros, or 22.6% of the country’s GDP, Greek Deputy Finance Minister Christos Staikouras noted in Greek parliament on Wednesday.

This amount does not include upcoming budget-cut measures, now said to be worth 11.9 billion euros - slightly up from previous figures reported - which Greece’s three-party coalition government is struggling to meet as a condition set by the troika, or international creditors, ahead of the release of the next installment of bailout money. 

Staikouras’s remark came while Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras was meeting troika representatives to examine ways to satisfy the budget-cut demands following the troika’s rejection of a number of measures in the austerity package.

The deputy finance minister said spending in the public sector had fallen by 17.5% in July and August. But he acknowledged that Greece’s primary deficit was expected to reach 1.5% of GDP, a higher-than-expected result, while adding that this discrepancy would not prompt further austerity measures.

Staikouras forecast that the recession was expected to measure between six and seven percent for the current year.

ReporterNet