Greek Reporter — Greece must exceed a primary surplus budget target of 3.5% of GDP in order to be allowed the application of countermeasures, stated President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem in a note to the Dutch Parliament
The same document — also revealed by CNN — says that counter measures, (legislation that will alleviate some of the adverse effects of austerity) if implemented, after 2019, will cover the amount of the outperformance of budgetary measures.
The Greek government wants the activation measures and countermeasures to take place simultaneously as of January 1, 2019, based on the forecast of financial results for 2018 which is to take place in August 2018. In contrast, lenders want to activate new austerity measures by January 1, 2019 and the financial results of 2018 finalized in the first half of 2019; if Greece exceeds the target of 3.5%, countermeasures that have been agreed on may be activated.
