Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos is in the US with Alternate Minister Giorgos Houliarakis for talks with representatives of potential investors.

According to the ministry, Tsakalotos and Houliarakis are due to have their meeting in New York on July 9 and 10 and in Boston on July 11. 

The government has sought to end speculation that Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos will be removed from his post as part of an imminent cabinet reshuffle.

Resorting to humor, the prime minister's office said that "Tsakalotos must move from Preveza where he is taking his holidays" and come back to Athens to assume his duties as finance minister.

In statements to The Guardian today, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said that “after seven years of deep recession, no government would accept the measures requested by the IMF.” He also insisted that Athens has not agreed to pursuing a primary surplus of 3.5% of the GDP at the end of the program.

Speaking before the parliamentary committee on financial affairs, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos labeled December as the most critical period on whether the Greek economy would exit the crisis or be led “off the cliff”. “December is the most crucial month since the summer of 2015.

The American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce will hold for the 26th consecutive year the annual Greek Economy Conference on November 30 and December 1.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos appointed Frangiskos Koutentakis as the new General Secretary of Fiscal Policy, according to the ministry statement.

Petros Triarchis was appointed as new head of the General Secretariat for Information Systems.

The expulsion of Greece’s general secretary of Public Revenues Katerina Savvaidou is on the table at Thursday’s meeting of the ministerial council, sources told private SKAI TV.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Economy Minister George Stathakis are continuing their meetings with Greece’s quartet of creditors from the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The goal is to surpass obstacles by August 11 for a positive recommendation on a new multi-billion-euro loan for Greece.

Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz was visited the Maximos Mansion government house on Friday, hours before an expected government reshuffle in Athens.

In the afternoon it was still unknown whether the controversial Stiglitz, whose contacts in the past with former Greek PM George Papandreou had been criticized by SYRIZA, today’s ruling party, would meet with PM Alexis Tsipras.

The Eurozone would like to receive a new letter with reform proposals from Greece, Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem has said.

His remarks came minutes after a new Eurogroup meeting on Tuesday ended with no concrete results.

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, who took over from Yanis Varoufakis on Monday, was also present.