Task officials from the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), EU, visited Athens from January 27 to February 11 for the third second evaluation of the economic program of government supported by loan Facility 80 billion coming from the eurozone and 30 billion through stand-by agreement of the Fund.

The objectives of the program is to restore fiscal sustainability, to ensure financial stability and enhance economic competitiveness and to create conditions for sustainable growth and employment. Utmost care program is to social justice in the allocation of the burden of adjustment, which will continue to direct the policies of the next period.

Our overall assessment is that the program has made further progress towards achieving its objectives. Despite delays in some areas, carried out the financial and broader reforms needed to achieve the medium-term objectives of the program. But still the need to plan and implement major reforms to create a critical mass that will ensure fiscal sustainability and economic recovery.

Regarding the outlook, the downturn until now has fluctuated at levels that were close to forecasts. Inflation remained low despite the increase in commodity prices. The downward trend in labor costs would contribute to increased competitiveness. It is encouraging that exports were launched recently at satisfactory levels. We continue to expect stabilization of the economy in late 2011.

Regarding the financial sector, the Greek authorities, despite the adverse macroeconomic conditions, achieved fiscal adjustment of about 6% of GDP in 2010, reducing the deficit in GDP of about 9.5 percentage points. This impressive achievement, however, noted some problems in budget execution, particularly with regard to revenue collection and expenditure control. The program is designed to address these problems and making progress.

The government began to draw up medium-term fiscal strategy in which to set a binding action plan by 2014 to be fully implemented by fiscal adjustment. The reforms are complex and include, inter alia, the taxation, health, public sector employment and public companies. The government is moving in a proper manner, leaving time for consultation with social partners prior to go from planning to implementation. The full government commitment to implement this complex process of institutional change, in particular the determination to resist vested interests is a critical success factor.

In finance, the government continues to work to ensure a gradual return to the bond markets with acceptable rates. Strict compliance program with financial support from the international community remains the key to achieving this goal. It is equally important for the government to step up the privatization program and generally to achieve greater performance from the wide range of assets. The project is complete the inventory of real property by the government and treatment action plan for each stage is in progress.

In the financial sector, the cash shortage and rising non-performing loans put pressure on the banking system and credit is shrinking. Encouragingly, recently, private banks have succeeded to some extent, to raise money. It is essential to progress by the government in terms of stability and efficiency of banks under its control. The Eurosystem has been a key source of liquidity to the system that allows banks to gradually move towards a sustainable medium-term funding model. The Financial Stability Fund is available to provide support to banks in the system if necessary.

Structural reforms are progressing. The legislation covering aspects of labor, liberalization of the professions, reform of health, licensing and the Competition Commission has voted on whether to vote. The Greek authorities must now focus their attention on the implementation of these laws to ensure that the new framework has been put into effect as soon as possible. Economic recovery requires particularly rapid progress in structural reforms. The government must ensure that reforms are quite ambitious and wide-ranging address to the profound structural challenges facing Greece. The next steps will focus inter alia, to revive the tourism industry, the elimination of administrative barriers to exports and to strengthen the framework for public procurement.