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After the second reshuffle of the PASOK government for a year and a half, the supervisory Troika is in Athens again. The representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission are back in Greece in order to discuss the final draft of the measures in the mid-term recovery plan with the new Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos. The final implementation of the measures of additional taxation of personal income and increases in taxation of buildings will be decided after this visit.

These measures should bring at least another 1.6 billion euros by the end of the year to decrease the budget deficit from the current 10% of the GDP to 6.4%. According to Vima, the Ministry of Economy has asked the Troika to be more flexible in taking the results of the recovery program and to set the target at the end of the year between 7.8% and 6.4% of the GDP, depending on the progress of reforms. The reasons for the requested light regime connected with the achievement of the objectives of the Memorandum are the high unemployment rate and the recession. It continues to be fueled due to the sharp decrease in the revenue of civil servants and the unemployment which requires larger amounts for social securities from the budget.

The final version of the mid-term recovery plan will become clear by the end of the week as it should be voted on before July 3, this year when the next extraordinary meeting of euro zone finance ministers Euro Group will be held. It will formally approve the allocation of 12 billion euros, which are the fifth tranche of the aid according to the first Memorandum. From his new position, the Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos promised in his first speech in the National Assembly that he would revise the tax system in a way that would be fairer and more effective. Similar were the words of the former Minister of Finance George Papakosntantinu a year and half ago, who promised the same, but not make it.

The mid-term recovery program and its approval by the majority are most crucial for the continuation of the financial aid for the country. The Minister of Employment and Social Security George Koutroumanis supported this fact by clarifying that without the fifth tranche the Greek pensioners would receive only about 50% of their pensions in July because there is not enough money.

Meanwhile, Mohammed El-Erian, the chairman of one of the largest investment funds for government bonds management PIMCO forecasted that Greece would not get away with the worst development. "Over the next three years, we will see different economies to face different problems. For European countries, and mainly for Greece, it would be insolvency," says the head of PIMCO, quoted by Vima.

The main problem of Greece lies not in the level of its foreign debt, but in the lack of competitiveness, said the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, quoted by Naftemporiki. He noted that the country takes the last place in the volume of exports among the countries in the euro area and is extremely weak in this field. Furthermore, the tax system is inefficient and wrongly built at the base. This does not mean that it could not be corrected, says the economist. He does not deny that this would be difficult, but feasible if there is political will for it.