"Agreement with troika on bad loans expected in mid November"

In an interview with Mega TV, Dendias said: "Troika asked for some clarifications on the bad loans and I think those will be sent by Monday or Tuesday. They were mainly cross-checking of data. We have also sent the main principles of understanding on bankruptcy law for individuals to the troika so as to agree on the framework and as far as the Greek government is concerned we can be ready even before December."

On the banks, he said that according to the provisions of the law, they will be obliged to follow a specific procedure of debt write-off and settlement of the rest of the amount in many installments, the number of which has not yet been agreed with the troika. There is one precondition, Dendias noted, that the business must be a viable one.

Referring to the height of the "haircut" and whether this would be 40 percent, he said that the government's initial proposal was an even bigger percentage.

He clarified that the regulations being promoted aim at supporting the country's productive structure which suffered losses from the crisis so as to be able to continue producing and creating demand in the market and mainly to maintain and increase the number of jobs.

"Right now we are doing two different things. We are trying to deal with the consequences from the crisis that hopefully is over. We are evaluating which businesses are viable," he said.
"Demand has now started rising. Therefore, a larger circle of businesses seem to be viable and we can support them so as to move forward. We have also recapitalized the banks. We could not have done much without it," he noted.