Showing posts with label Troika. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Troika. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Greek political fallout a worry, but financial contagion seen limited

BY JAN STRUPCZEWSKI
BRUSSELS Wed Dec 17, 2014 4:03am EST

(Reuters) - Five years after Greece sparked a sovereign debt crisis that threatened the euro's survival, the country again has the potential to rattle its currency partners if Greeks have to elect a new government next month.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Greece Expects Primary Budget Surplus for 2015

But Spending Plans Not Agreed with Creditors
The Wall Street Journal

By STELIOS BOURAS and  ALKMAN GRANITSAS
Updated Nov. 21, 2014 7:03 a.m. ET
0 COMMENTS
ATHENSGreece’s 2015 budget, submitted by the government to parliament on Friday, aims to meet the fiscal demands of the country’s creditors but comes without the prior approval of its troika of international inspectors.

Give Greece a Chance

8 NOV 21, 2014 12:02 AM EST
By The Editors

Bloomberg

Greece's creditors are testing the country's endurance -- again. If they keep pressing, they could split the euro area apart, which would be a disaster for them as much as for Greece. They need to stop insisting on the impossible, and find a way to relieve the country's debts.

The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have told the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to cut the country's debt burden, the biggest in the euro area, by reducing public spending even further. In return, they propose a last injection of bailout money and an emergency credit line.

Friday, March 28, 2014

Euro zone not preparing third Greek bailout so far: official

BY JAN STRUPCZEWSKI AND MARTIN SANTA
BRUSSELS Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:45pm EDT
(Reuters) - The euro zone is not making any preparations for a third bailout for Greece and will consider it only if expressly asked by Athens, which has not happened so far, a senior euro zone official said on Thursday.

Instead, the euro zone is now focusing on the timing and size of disbursements of badly delayed tranches of loans that have already been promised under the first two rescue packages, the official, directly involved in the Greek bailouts said.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Greece Reaches Deal to Release Foreign Rescue Funds

By NIKI KITSANTONISMARCH 18, 2014
The New York Times
ATHENS — After seven months of faltering negotiations, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Tuesday that Greece had reached a deal with its foreign lenders on economic reforms necessary to unlock billions of euros in crucial rescue funding. He also pledged to distribute 500 million euros to one million Greeks hit hardest by the country’s economic crisis.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Beware Greeks Selling Gifts as EU Frets: Euro Credit

By Nikos Chrysoloras and Marcus Bensasson  Mar 10, 2014 1:35 PM GMT+0200
Bloomberg

The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have expressed a view that the Greek government may repeat past mistakes if it manages to slip the shackles of its bailout program

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Greece, lenders will miss March 10 deadline for rescue loan deal: sources

ATHENS Fri Mar 7, 2014 5:50pm EST
(Reuters) - Greece and its international lenders will miss a self-imposed March 10 deadline to clinch a deal that will release the next tranche of the country's rescue loans, three senior Greek government sources said late on Friday.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

IMF Said to Demand Greater Say on Greek Banks in ECB Wrangle

By Nikos Chrysoloras, Jeff Black and Christos Ziotis  Mar 6, 2014 2:00 AM GMT+0200
The International Monetary Fund wants a greater say in the fate of Greek banks because it’s worried that the European Central Bank is being too lenient on them, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The IMF views an analysis of the country’s banks run in 2013 by BlackRock Inc. (BLK) as being too optimistic, said the people, who declined to be identified as the talks are private. The fund is concerned that the ECB, which will conduct its own stress test later this year, hasn’t pushed the Greek central bank hard enough to revise BlackRock’s findings, the people said. Those results will be published today.

Friday, February 28, 2014

Greece’s troubles

The troika is back
The Economist
The stand-off between the government and international lenders continues
Mar 1st 2014 | ATHENS
THE scene is familiar: burly Greek bodyguards hustle a trio of foreign bureaucrats into the finance ministry through a side entrance to avoid a cluster of anti-austerity protesters shouting “troika go home”. Hours later tight-lipped representatives of the troika—the European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank (ECB)—head back to their hotel while ministry officials spin their version of the talks: heroic Greek resistance to “excessive” demands made by the country’s international creditors.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Greece resumes bailout talks with lenders, no hard figures discussed

BY HARRY PAPACHRISTOU AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS
(Reuters) - Greece resumed bailout talks with its international lenders on Monday, hoping to end six months of wrangling over the release of new rescue loans it needs to avoid default.

At stake is the disbursement of funds to repay 9.3 billion of bonds maturing in May, the biggest single debt redemption Greece faces in the next three decades, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

They held a first round of talks but no hard numbers were discussed. "Talks are tough, a lot of issues are open," a senior Finance Ministry official said, declining to be named.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Greece resumes protracted bailout talks with lenders

BY HARRY PAPACHRISTOU AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS
ATHENS Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:02am EST
(Reuters) - Greece resumes bailout talks with its international lenders on Monday, hoping to end six months of wrangling over the release of new rescue loans it needs to avoid default.

At stake is the disbursement of funds to repay 9.3 billion of bonds maturing in May, the biggest single debt redemption Greece faces in the next three decades, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

The review by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund has dragged on since September, with disagreements about the extent of savings and reforms Athens must make to comply with the terms of its bailout.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

UPDATE 1-Greece's 2014 fiscal gap issue largely resolved with lenders-sources

Tue, Feb 4 2014
By Karolina Tagaris , Lefteris Papadimas and Jan Strupczewski
ATHENS/BRUSSELS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Greece and its foreign lenders have largely bridged differences over a potential fiscal gap this year, removing a key sticking point holding up talks to release more bailout funds, two sources directly involved in the talks said on Tuesday.
The latest review of Greece's progress under its European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout has dragged on since September in large part due to wrangling over how Athens would plug a gap in this year's budget, which had been estimated at 1 billion euros.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Germany preparing third financial rescue for Greece

New loan, outlined in a German finance ministry position paper, would be worth €10bn-€20bn, says Der Spiegel magazine
Helena Smith in Athens
The Guardian, Sunday 2 February 2014 20.14 GMT

Friday, January 31, 2014

The euro’s hellhound

Charlemagne
The Economist
It is time to reform the troika that handles euro zone bail-outs
Feb 1st 2014 | From the print edition
IN GREEK mythology, Cerberus is the three-headed dog guarding the gates to Hades. In modern Greek politics, the troika is the three-headed monster that traps the country in an economic underworld. At the finance ministry in Athens, even the cleaning ladies shout “murderers” at visiting members of the troika. In Lisbon protest banners declare “Fuck the troika”. There is now a popular Portuguese neologism, entroikado, roughly meaning “economically screwed”.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Europe Puts Pressure on Greece to Meet Budget Targets

The New York Times
By DAVID JOLLYJAN. 27, 2014
BRUSSELS — European officials sought on Monday to keep the pressure on Greece to honor its previously agreed spending and privatization targets as they wrestled with the need to help Athens bridge a funding gap that could reach €15 billion over the next two years.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Where Is the Rule of the Troika Leading Greece?

Posted: 12/23/2013 10:06 am
Constantine TzanosNuclear engineer, PhD
The Huffington Post
Since 2010, Greece is under the rule of the Troika (IMF, European Commission [EC] , European Central Bank [ECB]), which rules under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a document expounding what is expected to be executed by the Greek government.

The life and the future of eleven million people hang from the policies of the Troika, which are dominated by the German dictates of a severely punitive austerity characterized by deep cuts in wages and pensions and heavy taxation of individuals and businesses.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

EU-IMF postpone visit to Athens in dispute over reforms

BY JOHN O'DONNELL, LUKE BAKER AND HARRY PAPACHRISTOU
(Reuters) - Inspectors from the EU and IMF have postponed a planned visit to Greece, officials told Reuters on Friday, a move that marks a new low in relations between the parties and could delay aid payments to Athens.

The Greek government said it still expects differences with the troika to be bridged.

The decision to postpone the visit may be an attempt by the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund - together known as the 'troika' - to try to bring Athens to heel as frustration grows over Greece's failure to complete the reforms it has promised in return for aid.

It is a potential embarrassment for the Greek government, which wants to be able to show it is hitting its targets and bouncing back before it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union for six months from the start of next year.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

"Light at the end of the tunnel" for Greece?

Deutsche Welle
Greece is on the right track, said Chancellor Merkel after meeting with Greek Prime Minister Samaras in Berlin. Samaras used the occasion to hold the EU, ECB and IMF Troika to past promises of relief.
Things are going forward in highly indebted Greece, at least that's the way Germany's chancellor saw it. "The prime minister was able to present a series of impressive facts to me, and Greece has made significant progress," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at the Chancellery in Berlin. "A lot has been accomplished there in the last few years."
The extent of the praise is surprising given Germany's recent disagreement with European partners regarding Greece's next tranche from its second aid package. The Troika, comprised of the EU, ECB and IMF, has been seeking Greek clarification of a 1.5 billion euro ($2 billion) gap in the country's 2014 budget plans. EU countries had also criticized Greece for its lack of progress with regard to reforms.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Unhappy with the Troika, Greece turns to Berlin

Deutsche Welle
20-11-2013
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is set to arrive in Berlin for talks on Friday. Despite Greece's economic troubles, the government, experts say, is in a better position to negotiate today than in the past.
In early November, it was far from clear whether any agreements would be reached during a visit to Greece by the country's lenders, the so-called Troika consisting of the EU Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Significant differences stood between the Greek coalition government and its lenders.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Greece must step up effort to find 2014 budget gap financing: Eurogroup head

BRUSSELS Thu Nov 14, 2013 4:44am EST
(Reuters) - Greece must step up efforts to reach an agreement with international lenders on how to close a 2 billion euro ($2.68 billion) financing gap in its 2014 budget, the head of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Thursday.