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22 May 2017
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| Greece (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
Greece is seeking Monday to persuade its creditors in Europe that it has
done enough to get another chunk of bailout loans and a firm commitment on
alleviating Athens' hefty debt burden.
Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos is
meeting his counterparts from the 19-country eurozone at a meeting in Brussels,
where Greece will once again be top of the agenda.
The country is in the middle of its third
international bailout, but its progress has been slow in light of various
disagreements related to the reforms the Greek government has to impose in
return for the rescue money. Disagreements between Greece's creditors — the
eurozone and the International Monetary Fund — on what is required,
particularly on debt relief, have also stalled the negotiations.
The left-led Greek government of Prime
Minister Alexis Tsipras hopes that a package of measures, including further
spending cuts and economic reforms, passed by lawmakers last week, will be
enough to break the logjam and allow the so-called eurogroup to release a new
bailout installment, without which the country would struggle to meet its debt
servicing obligations in July. Agreement will also accelerate negotiations on
easing Greece's debt repayment terms.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone's top
official, says a decision on the disbursement of Greece's next batch of bailout
cash — around 7 billion euros ($7.7 billion) — could be secured at the meeting,
while downplaying expectations that a debt relief package is imminent.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Dijsselbloem
said if "all goes well," then a deal can be reached that will allow
the money to be disbursed "well in time" of a summer debt repayment
hump for Greece. Without the money, Greece would struggle to meet its
obligations and would again face another brush with bankruptcy, as it has done
on various occasions over the past seven years, most recently in the summer of
2015. The Total Investment &
Insurance Solutions
Under the terms of the current Greek bailout
program, the country has to enact a series of economic reforms in order to get
the cash. Its creditors in the eurozone have also promised they would offer the
prospect of debt relief if the country meets its side of the bargain.
"I expect, and (am) working on a deal
today but it won't be the end deal," Dijsselbloem said. "We've always
said the final concrete decision on extra debt relief measures will come at the
end of the program. which will be next year." The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Greece is currently in the midst of its third
bailout program — the current three-year program expires in the summer of 2018
and could be worth up to 86 billion euros ($95 billion) in total. In return for
the money, the government promised to enact a series of austerity measures as
well as economic reforms — its progress is continually monitored by
institutions from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
Dijsselbloem said he hoped further progress
could be made at Monday's meeting to get the IMF on board on the third bailout.
As well as disagreeing on the scale of debt relief Greece requires, the IMF and
the eurozone have diverged on their growth projections for Greece.
One potential ally for Greece is Emmanuel
Macron, France's new president. On Monday, Macron spoke to Tsipras and
according to his office stressed "his determination to find an accord soon
to lighten the burden of Greek debt over the long term." The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, named
last week, is joining his peers for the talks, and traveled to the Belgian
capital with Wolfgang Schaeuble, his counterpart in Berlin who has been a vocal
critic of Greece over the seven years of its bailout era.
While Le Maire said it's "important
there be a solution that reassures the Greek people and of course reassures
Greece's creditors," Schaeuble insisted that "structural reforms are
the decisive thing" to improve Greek growth. He, like Dijsselbloem, said
that "extra measures if required" would come after the bailout
program expires next year. The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
The Greek government is hoping to secure a
deal as soon as possible so it can lift the uncertainty that's been hanging
around the Greek economy over recent months.
Though Greece emerged from its economic
depression in 2014 and its annual budget position has improved dramatically,
the economy is back in recession, having shrunk for two straight quarters.
Analysts say the main reason why Greece has taken a step back is its stalled
bailout negotiations.
While the austerity measures have seen Greece's
public finances improve, the draconian spending cuts have seen poverty rates
surge to more than 35 percent. And the country's debt burden stands at around
175 percent, a level that the Greek government thinks is unsustainable in the
long-term — hence its insistence on some debt relief, at least in the form of
lower interest payments and longer repayment terms.The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
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