Farmers may have been hit in the face with the government's tax measures , but their rally in Athens was relatively uneventful, with more than 4,000 present.

Greece's primary budget surplus for 2013 may exceed previous forecasts and top 1 billion euros ($1.37 billion), a senior finance ministry official said on Tuesday.

Today's meeting the leadership of the finance ministry and the representatives of the troika of lenders reached a dead end with the latter assessing that the gap from the present property tax bill will be much greater than the 250 million euros estimated by the Greek side.