ATHENS: Greece's primary budget surplus for 2013 may exceed previous forecasts and top 1 billion euros ($1.37 billion), a senior finance ministry official said on Tuesday, citing latest revenue and spending data.
The primary surplus, which excludes interest payments, is being closed watched because twice-bailed out Greece is eligible for debt relief from its euro zone and International Monetary Fund partners once it reports an annual surplus.
The latest surplus forecast compared with an estimate of at least 812 million euros in the budget presented in December.
"Data from the general government, social security organisations and hospitals are good and this is why it (the surplus) may exceed 1 billion euros," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The European Union's statistics agency Eurostat will formally pronounce in April whether Greece achieved a primary surplus in 2013. If so, it would have achieved the target a year ahead of schedule under the terms of its 240-billion euro bailout plan.
Athens expects debt relief talks to start after April, seeking to obtain lower interest rates and longer maturities on its rescue loans.
Relations between Greece and its creditors, the European Union and the IMF remain strained, however, because lenders are not convinced yet that Athens will manage to widen the primary surplus as required in the years to come, from 1.5 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 4.5 per cent of GDP in 2016.
Lenders' concerns increased last week, when a top court reversed some public sector pay cuts mandated by the bailout, threatening to blow a hole of up to 500 million euros in the country's 2014 budget.
Greece's primary surplus is a figure designed to reflect the underlying health of the country's fiscal situation.
Apart from excluding interest payments, it also takes several one-off items out of the equation, such as payments to settle government arrears with suppliers and receipts from European central banks which return to Athens the profits from their Greek bond portfolios.
The surplus also includes about 1 billion euros of tax receipts and dividends, which the government expects to cash in during the first quarter of 2014. These payments will be booked in the 2013 budget under the accruals method of accounting.
indiatimes.com
The primary surplus, which excludes interest payments, is being closed watched because twice-bailed out Greece is eligible for debt relief from its euro zone and International Monetary Fund partners once it reports an annual surplus.
The latest surplus forecast compared with an estimate of at least 812 million euros in the budget presented in December.
"Data from the general government, social security organisations and hospitals are good and this is why it (the surplus) may exceed 1 billion euros," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The European Union's statistics agency Eurostat will formally pronounce in April whether Greece achieved a primary surplus in 2013. If so, it would have achieved the target a year ahead of schedule under the terms of its 240-billion euro bailout plan.
Athens expects debt relief talks to start after April, seeking to obtain lower interest rates and longer maturities on its rescue loans.
Relations between Greece and its creditors, the European Union and the IMF remain strained, however, because lenders are not convinced yet that Athens will manage to widen the primary surplus as required in the years to come, from 1.5 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 4.5 per cent of GDP in 2016.
Lenders' concerns increased last week, when a top court reversed some public sector pay cuts mandated by the bailout, threatening to blow a hole of up to 500 million euros in the country's 2014 budget.
Greece's primary surplus is a figure designed to reflect the underlying health of the country's fiscal situation.
Apart from excluding interest payments, it also takes several one-off items out of the equation, such as payments to settle government arrears with suppliers and receipts from European central banks which return to Athens the profits from their Greek bond portfolios.
The surplus also includes about 1 billion euros of tax receipts and dividends, which the government expects to cash in during the first quarter of 2014. These payments will be booked in the 2013 budget under the accruals method of accounting.
indiatimes.com
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