Greece plans billion euro handout for the poor

Greece plans to offer handouts worth 1 billion euros to poor Greeks who have suffered during the seven-year debt crisis after beating its budget targets this year, the government said on Thursday.

Greece expects to return to nearly 2 percent growth this year and achieve a primary surplus - which excludes debt servicing costs - of 2.2 percent of gross domestic product, outpeforming the 1.75 percent bailout target.

"The surplus outperformance which will be distributed to social groups that have suffered the biggest pressure during the financial crisis, will be close to 1 billion euros," government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told reporters.

It is not yet clear who would be eligible for what the leftist-led government calls a "social dividend."

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks have lost their jobs during a six-year recession that cut more than a quarter of...