Eurozone’s Juncker, EU’s Rehn satisfied with Greece’s results

Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Monetary and Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn expressed satisfaction Monday (July 12th) with Greece’s budget stabilisation process. After a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, Juncker said that the stabilisation of the Greek economy in the first half of the year has exceeded all expectations “achieving a 46% cut in public expenditure, beyond the target of 40%”. Rehn said the austerity measures undertaken by the government and implementation of the memorandum with the EU and IMF are at a satisfactory level. A group of EU, IMF and European Central Bank experts is expected to make a second visit to Athens by the end of this month to evaluate the country’s performance in implementing the reform package. Their conclusions will help officials determine in September whether to grant Greece the second tranche of the EU/IMF 110 billion-euro aid mechanism. The first 20 billion-euro tranche was extended in mid-May.