eurozone down to wire on greek bailout
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Eurozone down to wire on Greek bailout

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Eurozone down to wire on Greek bailout

Brussels - AFP

Eurozone finance ministers meet in Brussels Monday with time running out if they are to close a new 230-billion-euro ($300 billion) bailout package for Greece and avert a chaotic default. After several false starts during weeks of difficult negotiations, the ministers are scheduled to start meeting at the EU headquarters from 3:30 pm (1430 GMT), bidding to greenlight terms on an exchange of bonds held by private investors, the launch of which is pencilled in for Wednesday. They hope this key step can quell mounting suggestions that Athens could be pushed out of the common currency area. Designed to write off 100 billion euros of Greek sovereign debt, new IOUs would be issued in return for giving up rights on old bonds that have already lost market value. Fellow eurozone governments would also inject another 130 billion euros in sweeteners for Greek banks, guarantees covering the weeks-long legal bond-swap window and eventual cash loans to the government in Athens. But full delivery, as well as IMF assistance, will be contingent on EU-ordered spending cuts and reforms bearing fruit. For the caretaker Greek government led by Lucas Papademos, financial aid is needed to meet bond repayments of 14.5 billion euros due March 20. Papademos flew into Brussels late Sunday for 11th-hour talks before attending Monday's Eurogroup. In Washington, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the emerging deal was "deserving of support of the international community and the IMF." The Group of 20 major economies will meet later this week in Mexico seeking to boost IMF lending resources. After weeks of what officials said was "deliberate pressure" to get the ruling class in Athens to change its economic mindset, the new bailout has been likened to the aid equivalent of a hospital drip. Germany and The Netherlands still need to get the second bailout past sceptical parliaments. A small army of European Union officials is building up in Athens to make sure Greece delivers on pledges including a 22 percent reduction in the country's minimum wage and a 12-percent cut to pensions of more than 1,300 euros a month. EU partners see Greece as the victim of chronic financial mismanagement by dynastic political forces -- what Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti last week called a "perfect catalogue" of errors. But the Italian government said Friday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Monti and Papademos were "confident that a deal can be reached" on Monday. Both Italy, with national debts nearly four times greater than Greece's at 1.3 trillion euros, and Spain, where hundreds of thousands of anti-austerity protesters took to the streets on Sunday, risk renewed financial-market contagion if the deal breaks down. Parking the Greek problem to one side would allow eurozone leaders to focus on building a financial firewall for the currency as a whole at a March 2 euro summit. After fresh protests in Athens too, the sense Greece is effectively being placed under wardenship remains sensitive, ahead of a general election in April. But eurozone partners say surveillance of day-to-day management on the ground is critical after the failure of an initial 110-billion-euro EU-IMF rescue package approved nearly two years ago. On top of 3.2 billion euros in the latest spending cuts, Greece also agreed to open an "escrow" account, which would ring-fence monies due to be repaid to governmental creditors, with just enough "incentive," as one source said, to encourage taxation reform and privatisations. Discussions among tight-lipped officials were taking place in Brussels in the small hours of Monday morning. ith debt reduction targets having veered off course and Greece now in a fifth year of recession, a senior official told AFP there was a 5.5-billion euro hole in the headline sums first agreed in October. Remedial ideas include lowering the interest on past eurozone loans to Greece as well as bond swaps for national central banks and by extension the European Central Bank, although each brings its own problems.  

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

eurozone down to wire on greek bailout eurozone down to wire on greek bailout

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

eurozone down to wire on greek bailout eurozone down to wire on greek bailout

 



GMT 12:48 2016 Sunday ,27 November

Cilic, Dodig push Croatia to brink of Davis Cup

GMT 05:24 2017 Thursday ,28 December

Erdogan says 'terrorist' Assad cannot be part of Syria

GMT 12:59 2016 Saturday ,05 November

WB welcomes economic reforms in Egypt

GMT 18:40 2016 Saturday ,05 November

Egyptian GDRs in London down

GMT 10:57 2017 Wednesday ,06 December

Peru striker Guerrero has doping ban extended

GMT 17:51 2017 Tuesday ,07 March

Trump Signs New Travel Ban on Six Muslim Countries

GMT 10:30 2017 Wednesday ,06 September

Saudi Information Ministry praises media role during Hajj

GMT 15:29 2017 Tuesday ,24 January

Mind games really do help your brain

GMT 06:55 2015 Thursday ,01 October

Boston Red Sox beat Yankees

GMT 08:17 2017 Monday ,28 August

Bahrain celebrates World Humanitarian Day 2017

GMT 02:07 2017 Tuesday ,28 February

Opposition seeks Russian support at Syria talks
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday