Improved tax revenue a strong card in Greek government's hands

Greek authorities are seeking to convince the troika to lower their demands over the need for additional measures in 2014 basing their case on the improved course of budget revenues in the first 10 months of the year.

“The numbers are satisfactory to base our case, given the commitments made by the Greek government,” a top Finance ministry official told ANA-MPA on Tuesday, at the end of a meeting between Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and the troika of Greece's lenders at the Finance ministry.

The official declined to comment, however, whether this rising trend of state revenues will continue until the end of the year and whether the primary surplus could be higher than the 344 million euros envisaged in the 2014 draft budget.

The official said that a first meeting with the troika –Paul Thomsen and Matthias Morse- was a “good, classic, satisfactory cooperation,” which focused on the chapters to be reviewed in the coming days.

The negotiations focused on the 2014 budget -due to be tabled to Parliament by November 21-, actions needed for 2014 such as interventions by the Labour ministry, tax revenue, tax administration and finally structural reforms, privatizations and the course of the banking system.

The first day of talks did not focused on the prior actions needed to approve the loan of 1.0 billion euros, a funding gap and a unified property tax.