Greek talks focus on deal within days as IMF payments loom
By Nikos Chrysoloras
Talks on breaking the impasse over Greece?s financial lifeline took on new urgency as the nation faces a debt repayment at the end of this week with a deal to ease its cash crisis seemingly as far away as ever.
An international official said creditor institutions were working on a common proposal that would be presented to Greece as a way of breaking the deadlock in coming days. Technical negotiations on economic measures Greece must take were resuming at 3 p.m. Brussels time and an agreement is closer, though not ready, a government spokesman said on Monday.
With discussions in their fifth month, deadlines have come and gone with meetings, calls and summits yielding little as disagreements over pensions and labor laws persisted. The difference now is that Greece must make four payments totaling almost 1.6 billion euros ($1.78 billion) to the International Monetary Fund this month starting on Friday, and its bailout package from the euro region expires at the end of the month.
?It?s truly crunch time for Greece,? Erik Nielsen, chief European economist at UniCredit, said in a note to clients. ?A deal is coming, but it?s so tight time-wise that I would count on some bad arrears-related headlines before things calm down.?
Officials representing creditors spent the weekend working to converge among themselves on all issues related to the Greek bailout review, the official familiar with the matter said.
The common position may be communicated to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras by European political leaders, the person said, asking not to be named, as he wasn?t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Merkel Involvement
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will likely be more involved as time...
- Log in to post comments