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Stop gambling — EU warns Greece
June 14, 2015
Dismissing the IMF’s decision to withdraw its representatives from Brussels on Thursday, a Greek official described the move as a “pressure tactic”, and insisted negotiations would continue.
“Thus we are well away from an agreement”, he said.
Flitting between intransigence and conciliatory overtures, Tsipras has spent four months locked in an impasse with institutions that have the power to save his country from ruin – – the global Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.
EU officials revealed on Friday that they had held their first formal talks on the worst-case scenario for Greece, but the darkening outlook failed to fluster Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who holed up with his negotiators after proclaiming his optimism at an open air concert.
The IMF’s technical team left the ongoing negations in Brussels due to there being a lack of progress in narrowing differences on reform programmes like pensions and tax that would help the country avoid default. Earlier in the week, Tusk rebuked Tsipras for dragging his feet on a debt agreement and the IMF team left Brussels, voicing despair over Greece’s tactics.
European stocks fell after the IMF comments. Greece missed the payment, despite an earlier pledge on meeting the IMF payments on time, reported the Financial Times.
“There is no more time for gambling”.
A Greek government official indicated a deal with creditors may be nearer than thought after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had conferred with senior ministers.
“The Greeks have offered a small bit more… but fundamentally they haven’t moved and, interestingly, neither have the Europeans in any big way”, she said.
A poll published by Germany’s ZDF television Friday showed 41 per cent of respondents in favor of Greece staying in the eurozone and 51 per cent against.
The five-month standoff over the refusal by Greece to agree on reforms demanded by its creditors is set to reach a climax at a meeting of finance ministers in Luxembourg on June 18.
Euro zone industrial output rose in April but by less than expected, while Britain’s economic growth rate looked to have been stronger than previously estimated after the country’s statistics office revised the way it measured the construction sector.
Economists believe a solution remains possible but acknowledge that the creditors may soon tell Athens to accept their demands or face “Grexit” – market shorthand for Greece becoming the first country to exit the euro zone.
Talks with Merkel and France’s President Francois Hollande concluded with Tsipras rejecting proposals such as a higher value-added tax, Bild said.
The key points of contention appear to be cuts to Greek pensions, changes in the labor market and the size of Greece’s government budget. If not, the ECB will stop supporting the Greek banking system, and the government will run out of money to service foreign debts and, more dramatically, to pay Greek citizens their pensions and wages. Mr Weidmann said contagion risks have diminished but “should not be underestimated”.
“I do think it’s in Greece’s interest to get an agreement, but presently it’s not hurrying along”, he said. An interim deal may not be enough for lenders to allow Athens to draw the 7.2 billion euros in aid remaining under the second bailout program that was frozen previous year pending a bailout review that was never completed. The creditors’ mood soured again when Mr Tsipras called their latest reform ideas “absurd”. The IMF said the gap between the two sides was too wide and there had been no progress in talks.
Reports Friday said that a eurozone working group of the state secretaries for finance discussed the Greek crisis during a closed-door meeting in Bratislava on Thursday and Friday.
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