Political storm, NPLs delay issue

The Finance Ministry is putting off the issue of a five-year bond, which is all set in technical terms, until the domestic political dust settles and the effort to reduce the credit sector's bad-loan stock results in a breakthrough.

The anticipated conclusion of the parliamentary process over the Prespes agreement will remove one of the two main obstacles blocking Greece's return to the money markets, but the issue of the nonperforming loans still needs to be resolved before a new bond issue.

The milestone that Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos has set for the process to start in the markets is the submission to the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition (DG Comp) of the plan for the reduction of banks' NPLs processed by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund and presented by the minister to the creditors' mission chiefs this week.

The...