Coalition to announce by Friday how it will share out primary surplus

The government is expected to announce by Friday how it will share out the so-called “social dividend” from Greece’s 2013 primary surplus, sources have told Kathimerini.

After reaching a deal last week with the troika on the latest review of Greece’s adjustment program, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras pledged that some of the money that had been raised in excess of the lenders’ targets would be redistributed.

“More than 500 million euros will be given immediately to 1 million Greeks,” he said, noting that members of the police and security services on monthly salaries below 1,500 euros would be among those to benefit.

Another 20 million euros would go toward the growing ranks of the country’s homeless, Samaras said, adding that the state would pay an additional 1 billion euros in debts to suppliers than it had originally budgeted for this year while a further 1 billion euros would go toward reducing the country’s debt.

Greece has calculated its primary surplus for this year at 2.9 billion euros but its size is to be confirmed by the European Union’s statistics service Eurostat in April. After that, Greece will be able to distribute the promised handouts. The beneficiaries are expected to include more than 400,000 families on low incomes and some 300,000 pensioners.

Another 350 million euros from the surplus is to go toward plugging a gap in the country’s social security funds.

Government officials met on Monday to work on the details of how the social dividend would be shared out.