The figure that the leftist Greek government must derive from privatizations until August 2018, when the ongoing third bailout is due to end, is no less than 6.1 billion euros.
Of that figure, 1.2 billion euros must be listed on the state’s books in 2016, a sum expected to be met through the finalization of a contract transferring the management of 14 provincial airports to a consortium led by Germany’s Fraport.
The memorandum-mandated target for 2017 is 3.2 billion euros, broken down into 800 million euros for each quarter of the year. In 2018, the 800-million-euro target is cited for each of the quarters in the first half of the year, i.e. 1.6 billion euros for the year.
Although the total of between 6.1 and 6.2 billion euros is a far cry from a February 2011 target of 50 billion euros then quoted by representatives of the “troika” of institutional creditors during a press conference in Athens, the sum is still an ambitious target for a government elected on a virulently anti-privatization stance and with the Greek economy in its seventh year of recession.
