A team of inspectors of the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) "troika" held its first meetings in Athens on Monday morning with finance minister George Papaconstantinou and afterwards with the head of the finance ministry's Council of Economic Experts George Zanias.

The troika is in Athens for the first full review of the country's economic stability program since the activation of the support mechanism for the Greek economy. The troika will draw up a report on the basis of which a second tranche of the economic aid package for the Greek economy will be disbursed.

The EU-IMF inspectors are slated to complete their work here on August 6, after which the Commission will issue its report in mid-August and the IMF in late August, to enable release of the 9 billion euros second tranche of the support loan to Greece by mid-September.

The troika is slated to hold a succession of meetings on Wednesday with several ministers, including Economy, Competitiveness and Shipping minister Louka Katseli, Employment and Social Security minister Andreas Loverdos, Transport and Networks Minister Dimitris Reppas, Health Minister Mariliza Xenoyiannakopoulou and Defence Minister Evangelos Venizelos, while it will also visit the Bank of Greece (BoG), the independent Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), the Public Debt Management Organisation and the finance ministry's financial crimes unit (SDOE).

The financial situation in the DEKO (public utilities and organisations), the debt-ridden state hospitals, local government organisations and social security/pension funds will come under the inspectors' microscope, while the IMF believes that large margins exist for further saving of resources in those sectors. According to an IMF report, in the first five months of the year alone, hospital and funds' expenditures overshot the target by 1.5 billion euros.

The troika will also be briefed on the fiscal finances, with emphasis on the drastic reduction of the deficit by 45.4 percent in the first half of the year, was was substantially above the 39.5 percent target for the entire year, and also on the drastic curtailment of expenditures in the same period that has also substantially exceeded the target for the year. As for a substantial shortfall in revenues, the finance ministry has stressed that there will be no divergence from the targets given that the revenues from the increases in VAT and special consumer taxes have not yet entered the state coffers.

The agenda of talks with the Greek authorities also includes deregulation of the energy market, the opening up of the so-called 'closed' professions, accelerating absorption of NSRF (National Strategic Reference Framework) funds and restructuring of the banking system.

An interim report in mid-July by the IMF found the Greek stability program to be "broadly on track", with the Greek authorities having made considerable progress in putting public finances on a sustainable path and having implemented major reforms ahead of schedule.