Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras forecast that a social dividend will be handed out in 2015 and that targets for achieving a primary surplus would be met. Speaking with Sunday’s edition of daily Eleftheros Typos, he said the size of this dividend will be proportional to the extent that targets concerning the primary deficit are exceeded.

He announced that back pay and salary raises to uniformed personnel will begin to be paid at the end of the month.

Mr. Staikouras underlined that there would be a gradual reduction in the tax burden on households and businesses and that these will come mainly from spending reductions, the enlargement of the economy as well as from fighting the black market economy and clamping down on tax evasion. He predicted that the fiscal gap next year will be zero, not the 2.5 billion euros forecast by Greece’s lenders.