Saturday, June 13, 2015

Greece Debt Talks: "If the IMF walks out... then part of the programme's financing will be gone

Greece debt crisis is still on going and more worsen, Greek officials have so far rejected what they characterise as "pressure" from creditors, and will send a senior delegation to Brussels to submit its own plans on Saturday to try and end a five-month standoff.

As reported before, The furious back-and-forth took place a day after the International Monetary Fund's negotiating team flew back to Washington from Brussels because of major differences, with a June 18 deadline looming for a deal. It brings The Athens stock market dropped 6 percent after it emerged that senior eurozone officials meeting in Bratislava on Thursday had war-gamed "worst case" scenarios of Greece not being able to pay its bills to IMF

"In discussions, a default was mentioned as one of the scenarios that can happen when everything goes wrong," a eurozone official told AFP on condition of anonymity after the Bratislava talks. Another official added: "It was a preparation for the worst case. Countries wanted to know what was going on."

Greece debt talks is near to finale episode, The long-running saga over Greece's refusal 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. The meeting is talking about Greece debt crisis solution, A deal to unlock the last 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) of Greece's international bailout is needed next week to give national parliaments time to approve it before the bailout expires on June 30.

Greece faces a huge 1.6 billion euro payment to the IMF at the end of the month and a further 3.4 billion euros to the European Central Bank on July 20.

Eurozone Member states are "increasingly raising questions on what are the possible ways forward in this situation," said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission vice-president for the euro. "We have to evaluate all the possibilities," Lithuania's Finance Minister Rimantas Sadzius told AFP.

Meanwhile Standard & Poor's on Friday lowered the rating of Greece's four big banks, and said in a statement that the lenders "will likely default in the next 12 months in the absence of an agreement between the Greek government and its official creditors".

From Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said all sides involved had to keep talking to reach an agreement, adding that "where there's a will there's a way", despite Berlin's hardline stance on Greece.

Its crucial, Underlining the growing frustration with Athens, a new poll showed a majority of Germans now want Greece out of the eurozone. A narrow majority (51 percent) of Germans polled this week by ZDF television said they are opposed to Greece still sharing the single currency. Six months earlier, only 33 percent were against.

From Athens government, Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos insisted that a deal "will come about by June 18 or never", while Minister of State Alekos Flambouraris, a close associate of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, added: "I hope (an agreement) comes very soon, on June 18, when the Eurogroup convenes."

Athens still trying to refuse the programme, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who heads the group of 19 eurozone finance ministers, has insisted it was "unimaginable" to do a deal without the IMF, whom Athens accuses of trying to pressure other creditors.

"If the IMF walks out... then part of the programme's financing will be gone and then we no longer have a base," he said, adding that the Fund's involvement was indispensable. Greece will no longer Eurozone members? ? Let's see

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