Gov’t eyes flexible budget surplus

The government is asking its creditors for the option to transfer any overruns in the primary budget surplus from one year to the next, as well as for a reduction in the primary surplus targets and a change in the use of European central banks' earnings from Greek bond holdings (SMPs and ANFAs) from servicing the national debt to financing investments, according to a senior Finance Ministry official.

These three objectives would offer the country some fiscal space, bolster growth and contribute toward the improvement of debt sustainability analyses, the same source told Kathimerini.

The transfer of primary surplus overruns could be carried out through the so-called "smoothing mechanism" that the International Monetary Fund has also proposed. The same official says this demand has the greatest chance of being approved because the government is not exactly asking for...