Greek finances: Mind the 5-7-bln-euro gap, lost in numbers

The more the new Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government focuses on the figures, the nearer it gets to introducing more austerity measures. The most crucial stage of negotiations with Greece's international Greek creditors came on Wednesday as Finance Ministry officials gazed at a fiscal gap of 5-7 bln euros. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis confirmed Proto Thema's report that the government needs to find money to pay the current state obligations within 10-15 days.

The measures that would be required to cover the huge fiscal gap are such that the government does not even want to consider. Greek Economy Minister George Stathakis was forced to deny the report by the Athens Newsagency concerning the explosion of the fiscal gap to 5-7 bln euros from the 2.5 bln euros that it had been estimated to be prior to the elections. He took to twitter to state that there would be no revenue shortfall according to figures that show a billion-euro "black hole" from the first month of the new budget's execution. "Whoever heard by statement on television today ? understood exactly the opposite of what are being refered to in articles concerning a reported fiscal gap of 5-7 bln euros. I repeat that the fiscal gap would be covered in an ordinary way. In two months there will be no revenue shortfall as the agreement with creditors creates a steady field of stability."

Despite his tweet, there are sources that confirm that the fiscal gap from 2015-2016 would be at 5-7 bln euros for Greece. The fiscal, rather than funding, gap is threatening as it cannot be covered without emergency austerity measures such as wage and pension cuts.

During his television statements, Stathakis had said that "there will be a solution for the funding of the economy in a very normal...