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Monday, May 18, 2015

REPORT: The European Commission just offered Greece a deal

Greece's To Vima newspaper has just got the scoop on a leaked Greek deal proposal from the European Commission. The agreement would unlock about €5 billion (£3.62 billion, $5.69 billion) for the cash-strapped state, with fewer reforms than some of the country's creditors would like.  Some widely disliked austerity measures, like the ENFIA tax on property, would be kept under the move. But the report appears to list no massive specific pension demands, with a review of the system's sustainability pencilled in. Similarly it seems to ask for a review of Greece's collective wage bargaining system, rather than any specific labour market reforms.  In general it looks like a generous offer in comparison to the latest reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and it's not at all clear that many of the Eurogroup finance ministers would accept it.  A deal like this would be taken as a big win for Syriza by analysts, but even this is some way from the anti-austerity party's election platform. The proposed deal requires smaller budget surpluses from the Greek government this year and next, but suggests they should keep rising again to higher levels from 2017.  Here's that direct from To Vima:  The text identifies the budgetary targets for the four years 2015 - 2018 are as follows: -2015 A primary surplus of 0.75% of GDP -2016 Primary surplus of 2% of GDP -2017 Primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP -2018 Primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP. Athens stocks are not hating the news — the market just reversed losses (and then some): Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants


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