RTE — Bailout inspectors will resume talks with the Greek government today to try to complete a review of the country’s compliance with agreed reforms that has dragged on for months.
Talks had stalled over delays in implementing reforms and disagreements among lenders themselves on whether the International Monetary Fund would fund a third bailout, agreed in mid-2015 and worth up to €86 billion.
Inspectors from the EU Commission, the euro zone’s ESM rescue fund, the IMF and the ECB will meet with government officials to discuss energy reforms, fiscal issues and privatisations, a finance ministry official said.
Last Monday, Greece and its official creditors agreed a deal in order to ease the logjam in the talks, which has held up the disbursement of bailout loans.
Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said last week he expects the review to be concluded by March 20.
Greece needs a new tranche of financial aid amounting to 7 bln euro by July, to meet debt repayments.
Meanwhile Bruegel, the Brussels based think tank, warned last week that another multi-billion-pound Greek rescue is ‘inevitable’ unless Germany offers debt relief, something that germany made clear is not prepared to do.
In an interview with German broadcaster DLF over the weekend, German deputy finance minister Jens Spahn said Greece needed “reliability” not debt relief, for its economy to grow – and that a reduction or further bailout cash was out of the question.
