Just note that just as Greece allegedly has gotten close to the proposed 11.5 billion in cuts , now we see the figure set to jump another 2.5 billion ......

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_19/08/2012_457383

Greece will need to cut another 2.5 bln euros, says German magazine 

Greece will likely need to cut an additional 2.5 billion euros in spending over the next two years to meet demands made by its international lenders in return for financial aid, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday.
Citing an interim report by the troika of European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, Der Spiegel said Greece would likely need 14 billion euros over the next two years to get its deficit below 3 percent by the end of 2014, up from a previously expected 11.5 billion.
The country's budget deficit stood at 9.3 percent in 2011.
The increased financing gap was due to setbacks to privatization plans and as the economy, in its fifth year of recession, was faring worse than expected, the magazine said.
International creditors, who have bailed out Greece twice, have set those targets in return for financial aid. A positive verdict from the troika is key for lenders to decide whether they will keep funds flowing to the austerity-bound country.
The troika representatives wrote the report after their last trip to Athens and would determine the exact amount needed when they next visit Greece in early September, the magazine reported.
"The delegation also criticized in its interim report that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' government had already been unable to explain how the savings of 11.5 billion euros should be reached,» Der Spiegel reported. «Roughly a third is uncovered."
On Friday, a Greek government official said Greece had inched closer to securing the cuts, agreeing 10.8 billion of the 11.5 billion euros worth of cuts demanded.

The official did not elaborate on where the cuts would come from and said talks to finalize the package would continue on Monday. Samaras will meet next week with the leaders of France and Germany - he will see Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Friday - as well as Jean Claude Juncker, head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers. He is expected to lobby for a two-year extension to reduce the country's budget deficit. According to a Greek newspaper, finance ministry officials have calculated that the economy would recover faster and its debt be more sustainable if Greece were given two more years, but leaders in the lender states are unlikely to give in easily. However, there is already a clause in Greece's 130-billion-euro bailout deal that says the deficit adjustment period could be extended if its recession is deeper than expected. Greece's economy contracted at an annual rate of 6.35 percent in the first half of this year, compared with an EU/IMF forecast for a 4.7 percent contraction for the full year. Samaras said last month that the economy would shrink by more than 7 percent in 2012. [Reuters] and..... http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_18/08/2012_457321 Cuts virtually complete  Ministry says just 700 mln of 11.5 bln demanded by troika still to be identified The government is close to identifying where all of the 11.5 billion euros in public spending cuts the troika is demanding for the next two years will come from, Finance Ministry sources have revealed, adding that significant cuts to public sector wages, pensions and civil servant numbers should be expected. Following a meeting at the ministry late on Friday, it was revealed that 10.8 billion euros’ worth of measures have been agreed by officials and that the remaining 700 million will be identified at a meeting Monday. The measures, however, still need the approval of the three coalition leaders before they are put to Parliament. The bulk of the cuts, some 4 billion euros, will come from pensions and welfare benefits. In terms of the social payments, some will be reduced and others scrapped altogether and the government will introduce stricter income and assets criteria for those who will be eligible for benefits in the future. In terms of reduction to pensions, the government has yet to decide on which of two sliding scales will be used to calculate the cuts, which will range from 2 to 15 percent. In either case, retirement pay below 700 euros per month will not be affected. Supplementary pensions, however, are to be slashed by up to 35 percent. This would be the fourth cut to pensions since 2010, when Greece signed up to the EU-IMF bailout. Pensions have been reduced by up to 40 percent since then. Hefty cuts to salaries at public enterprises, or DEKOs as they are known, are also being lined up. Sources said that the reduction is likely to reach between 30 and 35 percent. The average annual salary at DEKOs is currently 31,000 euros but will be reduced to about 21,000, which will save the public coffers 250 million euros. Sources said that regular civil servants would also face further cuts to their salaries. Over the last two years, they have seen their two extra monthly payments for Easter, summer and Christmas whittled down, but according to the latest plans, these will be phased out completely. The Finance Ministry has not ruled out cuts to basic salaries in the public sector as well. The government is also set to announce the gradual removal of 34,000 civil servants who will be placed in a labor reserve scheme, where they will receive a percentage of their salary for the next 12 or 24 months and will no longer be employed in the public sector. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10398606 and... Report: Merkel ally rejects concessions to Greece AP foreign, Sunday August 19 2012 BERLIN (AP) — A senior ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that there is no room for concessions to Greece on fulfilling the conditions of its aid program and said in an interview published Sunday that he sees little chance of Germany's governing coalition supporting a third rescue package. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is to visit Germany and France over the next week as Europe awaits a report next month from debt inspectors on Greece's progress in implementing reforms and austerity measures demanded in exchange for two massive bailout packages. Signs of slippage on those measures have fueled impatience with Athens in Germany and other prosperous nations and speculation about a possible Greek exit from the 17-nation euro. There's little enthusiasm among creditor countries for granting Greece more time or other concessions. "The Greeks must stick to what they agreed to," Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Merkel's conservative bloc, was quoted as telling the weekly Der Spiegel. "There is no more latitude, either on the timeframe or the matter itself — because that would again be a breach of agreements. It is just that which led to this crisis." Asked whether he could imagine a third rescue package for Greece, Kauder replied that officials will have to wait for the international debt inspectors' report — "but I see little chance in the (governing) coalition for a third aid package." Nearly all eurozone rescue decisions need the endorsement of Germany's Parliament. Bailing out strugglers hasn't been popular in Germany, and the prospect of endless rescues is particularly unpopular in the ranks of Merkel's center-right coalition. Kauder said that a Greek bankruptcy would be expensive for Germany "but agreements must be kept to." "There cannot always be new programs or watered-down conditions," he was quoted as saying. "The Greeks must at some point answer the question: do we perhaps make even more of an effort, or do we leave the euro?" German Cabinet members also have shown little appetite for further concessions. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Saturday: "I have always said that we can help the Greeks, but we cannot responsibly throw money into a bottomless pit."