Greek austerity woes to feature in creditor talks: Minister

the country’s creditors next week, the Greek finance minister said yesterday.
“It is evident that we will be discussing the macroeconomic data of the first eight months of 2011 and the country’s fiscal record will clearly be evaluated on the basis of this data,” Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said in a statement. Venizelos was reacting to Greek media reports yesterday claiming that Athens was seeking to “renegotiate” the timetable and goals of Greece’s arduous recovery plan that has plunged the country into recession. EU and International Monetary Fund experts are currently conducting a regular audit of Greece’s finances to determine whether it will receive next month a sixth tranche of funds under its May 2010 bailout accord. Venizelos has pledged to speed up fiscal efforts by the end of the year. But a worse-than-calculated contraction in the economy, along with difficulties faced by Greek tax authorities to secure cash, have bedevilled the government’s drive to trim the runaway public deficit.
The finance ministry this week released figures showing that among Greece’s 34 leading tax district offices, most staffers had completed less than one audit of state debtors in June while there are over 360 000 pending cases nationwide. – AFP.