Category: Greece

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras arrives at his office in Athens after returning from Brussels meetings on June 4, 2015. Photographer: Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg Greece became the first country to defer a payment to the International Monetary Fund since the 1980s as its game of brinkmanship with creditors goes down to the wire. With Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras getting ready to address parliament on Friday after receiving a list of creditors’ demands, the step underscores the state of the country’s shriveling finances. While international officials have reported some progress in recent days, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “we’re still far from reaching a conclusion.” The current phase of Greece’s crisis is nearing its conclusion as the country runs out of money after four months of deadlock. Stocks and bonds have whipsawed this week amid a flurry of political activity starting with a late-night meeting in Berlin between European leaders and […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

ATHENS/BRUSSELS Greece delayed a key debt payment to the International Monetary Fund due on Friday as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, facing fury among his leftist supporters, demanded changes to tough terms from international creditors for aid to stave off bankruptcy. The IMF said Athens had informed the global lender that it plans to bundle four payments due in June into a single 1.6 billion euro lump sum, which is now due on June 30. "Under an Executive Board decision adopted in the late 1970s, country members can ask to bundle together multiple principal payments falling due in a calendar month," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement. It was the first time in five years of crisis that Greece has postponed a repayment on its 240 billion euro bailouts from euro zone governments and the IMF, and it came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said talks on a […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

ATHENS Greece will not make a June 5 repayment to the International Monetary Fund if there is no prospect of an aid-for-reforms deal with its international creditors soon, the spokesman for the ruling Syriza party said on Wednesday. The payment of 300 million euros ($335 million) is the first of four this month totaling 1.6 billion euros from a country that depends on foreign aid to stay afloat. Greece owes a total of about 320 billion euros, of which about 65 percent to euro zone governments and the IMF, and about 8.7 percent to the European Central Bank. On Tuesday, Greece’s creditors drafted the broad outlines of an agreement to put to the leftist government in Athens in a bid to conclude four months of negotiations and release aid before the country runs out of money. "If there is no prospect of a deal by Friday or Monday, I […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

European stocks deepened a drop as another round of talks failed to end a stalemate in Greek debt talks. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.6 percent to 393.71 at 8:11 a.m. in London. Greek debt talks have dragged on even with loan-payment deadlines looming, helping push the benchmark gauge 5 percent down from a record in April. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rejected proposals by European leaders and the International Monetary Fund to help unlock more aid, instead backing his own government’s plans. The country has to make four payments totaling more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to the IMF this month, even as its euro region bailout expires. Tsipras indicated that Greece won’t miss the first installment due Friday. Still, traders are betting stock swings will fade with Greek worries, letting them return their focus to the economy and company earnings. Options market data shows expectations […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

Photo European leaders gathered on Monday night in Berlin to discuss the Greek debt crisis, conspicuously excluding representatives of Greece from the meeting. Credit Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters ROME — If Europe is finally coming to a moment of reckoning in the Greek debt crisis — a standoff now rattling financial markets and threatening European unity — then the critical meeting apparently occurred late Monday night, when Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany summoned critical players to an emergency summit meeting in Berlin. Everyone was invited, except Greece . This was not a big surprise, since those invited were Greece ’s creditors, who were in effect trying to form a united front against Athens and speed up the debt talks before a payment due on Friday. But the list of attendees symbolized how Greece’s far-left government had become very much alone politically, analysts said, and how its promise to roll back the […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

BERLIN—The political consequences of a Greek insolvency would be “gigantic,” German Vice-Chancellor and Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Tuesday, calling on the left-wing Greek government to be willing to compromise. His comments come after German Chancellor Angela Merkel , French President François Hollande, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde , met in Berlin Monday evening to discuss ways to break up the deadlock of the Greek debt crisis. “I think it’s absolutely right that Germany and France once again try to find a solution, because the political consequences of Greece’s insolvency within the eurozone would of course be gigantic,” said Mr. Gabriel at a conference. “Many people seem to have somewhat the impression that it’s better to make a painful break than to draw out the agony. The truth is, that if the first […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

ATHENS Greece will not make a June 5 repayment to the International Monetary Fund if there is no prospect of an aid-for-reforms deal with its international creditors soon, the spokesman for the ruling Syriza party said on Wednesday. The payment of 300 million euros ($335 million) is the first of four this month totaling 1.6 billion euros from a country that depends on foreign aid to stay afloat. Greece owes a total of about 320 billion euros, of which about 65 percent to euro zone governments and the IMF, and about 8.7 percent to the European Central Bank. On Tuesday, Greece’s creditors drafted the broad outlines of an agreement to put to the leftist government in Athens in a bid to conclude four months of negotiations and release aid before the country runs out of money. "If there is no prospect of a deal by Friday or Monday, I […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

LONDON The euro tumbled on Monday after Greece missed a self-imposed Sunday deadline for reaching an agreement with its lenders to unlock aid, keeping alive fears of a debt default and potential exit from the euro zone. Athens and its euro zone and International Monetary Fund (IMF) creditors have been locked in talks for months, with the single currency reacting to any signs of deadlock or breakthrough. Without a deal, Athens risks default or bankruptcy in weeks. It faces a payment to the International Monetary Fund on Friday and the expiration of its bailout program on June 30. "It’s becoming increasingly unlikely that (Greece) will be able to get the funding without some kind of political disruption along the way," said Hamish Pepper, a currency strategist at Barclays bank in London. "The news over the weekend was consistent with that and the impact on the currency is also consistent […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

ATHENS Greece’s government on Wednesday said it is starting to draft an agreement with creditors that would pave the way for aid, but European officials quickly dismissed that as wishful thinking. Greece and its European and International Monetary Fund lenders have been locked in tortuous negotiations on a reforms agreement for four months without a breakthrough in sight. Without a deal, Athens risks default or bankruptcy in weeks. A new round of talks begin on Wednesday in Brussels, and a Greek government official said the two sides would start drafting a technical-level agreement there, along the lines of Athens’ longtime demands for no wage or pension cuts and a lower target for a primary budget surplus. But European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the two sides still had some way to go before any agreement could be drawn up. "We are working very intensively to ensure a staff-level […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

Photo A street in central Thebes, northwest of Athens. While the trash is being collected, budget cuts of 50 percent leave room for little else. Credit Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times ATHENS — Bulldozers lie abandoned on city streets. Exhausted surgeons operate through the night. And the wealthy bail out broke police departments. A nearly bankrupt Greece is taking desperate measures to preserve cash. Absent a last-minute deal with its creditors, the nation will run out of money early next month. Two weeks ago, Greece nearly defaulted on a debt payment of 750 million euros, or about $825 million, to the International Monetary Fund . For the rest of this month, Greece should be able to cover daily cash deficits of around 100 million euros, government ministers say. Starting June 5, however, these shortfalls will rise sharply, to around 400 million euros as another I.M.F. obligation comes […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com