Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras spoke to Agora Newspaper on Saturday and said that Greece is meeting its fiscal targets and has encountered the long standing ‘twin’ deficit to return to positive rates of economic growth. He said that parallel to the economic recovery, the unemployment rate is slowly being reduced while a wide range of restructuring reforms are being implemented to boost the competitiveness of the economy.

“In this environment and with this data, the State Budget was tabled in Parliament,” says Mr. Staikouras. “A State Budget that foresees a significant rate of growth and which is, for the first time after decades, fiscally balanced.”

He underlined, however, that Greece’s international creditors believe that there is a serious fiscal gap in the 2015 budget. “It believed the same for the two previous years,” he noted, adding that extremely high demands are being placed on Greece to cover this alleged fiscal gap.

“Our estimations and predictions are different,” says Mr. Staikouras. “The government is negotiating with the interest of the Greek economy at heart. We support our documented positions with confidence.” He added that the end will validate Greece’s position.

Nonetheless, Mr. Staikouras pointed out the necessity of being within a climate of national consensus.