ATHENS - The new Greek government presents a strategy to salvage its debt rescue programme on Friday, to win favour with EU-IMF auditors and gain room to renegotiate terms with its creditors.
But the state of the economy is grim and the eurozone climate is tough.
Creditors have warned Greece that it is too far short of targets to merit a new deal, financial markets have again turned sceptical about eurozone prospects.
And the IMF is gloomy about the global outlook, warning that growth could turn down even faster if the eurozone crisis drags on.
Meanwhile Greece must win the confidence of the auditors to obtain the next slice of aid money which it needs to pay current expenditure.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras has told reporters that Greece's recovery programme is "off-track in certain areas" after two electoral campaigns in two months, and that Greece still faces "difficult years ahead."
A finance ministry source told AFP on Friday: "We are not abandoning the renegotiation claim but certain things need to be done first."
The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Greece had altogether dropped its demand to ease rescue terms, citing the new finance minister.
"We can't ask for anything from our creditors before we get it back on course," it quoted Stournaras as saying.
Greek ministers have been instructed by the government to furnish data and refrain from making renegotiation requests, other reports said.
The labour ministry told auditors Thursday that unit labour costs were down by eight percent and on track towards a 2014 target of 15 percent, ANA said.
And many companies had signed new labour agreements since February with salary cuts of up to 30 percent, the agency said.
Eurozone and EU finance ministers meet early next week to follow up on a summit last week, presented as a breakthrough in getting on top of the debt crisis, but decisions by the European Central Bank on Thursday disappointed markets, despite a rate cut.
Portugal is also struggling to meet its rescue targets and might extend a pay cut for civil servants to all employees after the constitutional court struck down the initial measures.
The cost of borrowing for Spain and Italy is again on the rise, even though Ireland made a successful return to the debt market.
Athens will on July 10 seek to raise 1.25 billion euros ($1.56 billion) in six-month treasury bills, the debt management agency said.
Until the EU and IMF release more funds, the Greek government needs all the income it can find.
Tax authorities this week said they had only managed to successfully conclude less than five percent of tax arrears cases.
Out of over 13.2 billion euros in tax fines owed Greece, tax officers have so far managed to reclaim 630.7 million euros, the general secretariat of information systems said in a statement.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will unveil his government's strategy on revising the country's EU-IMF bailout amid creditor warnings that the country is too far behind its targets.
Samaras will address parliament after 1530 GMT at the start of a three-day debate culminating in a vote of confidence on Sunday which the three-party coalition supporting his government is expected to win.
The 61-year-old former foreign minister took office after June 17 elections, promising an austerity-weary nation that he would re-examine salary cuts, tax rises and job losses.
The economy is in the fifth year of recession.
In his speech to parliament, he is expected to announce an acceleration of Greece's privatisation drive, to satisfy Brussels and the IMF, while simultaneously promising Greeks that more job and pay cuts are out of the question.
In a letter to EU leaders last week, Samaras -- housebound at the time after major eye surgery -- wrote that Greece must obtain "necessary modifications" to its rescue programme in order to fight off recession and reach its economic goals.
Greece has been rescued twice, and in April benefited from a big write-off of debt owed to private investors.
Under the current terms of its bailout, Greece must adopt further cuts worth 11.5 billion euros ($14.2 billion) by 2013 and reduce the state payroll by 15,000 people in 2012.
The EU-IMF audit is expected to last weeks, with actual negotiations with creditors set to begin only at the end of the month.
source: interaksyon.com
