First good news anticipated in March's Eurogroup

In March the government is anticipating a positive decision by the Eurogroup regarding at least one of the three requests it has submitted to the creditors so as to secure some additional fiscal space, according to a senior Finance Ministry official.

These three requests concern the option of transferring any primary surplus overruns to the following year (smoothing mechanism), the exemption of any extraordinary spending relating to the migration crisis from the fiscal result, and the use of eurozone central bank earnings from Greek bond holdings (SMPs and ANFAs) for investments.

As Brussels sources agree that any decision on the SMPs and ANFAs will probably come in June, it is likely that decisions at the March 16 Eurogroup will concern either migration-related spending or the smoothing mechanism. Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told Thema FM radio on Friday...