FT: Athens nudges closer to IMF positions (video)

Creditors are hammering out their own proposals for Greece, but will Athens agree?

The Financial Times reports that the proposals sent by Athens to creditors have nudged a little closer to the positions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The report, by Peter Spiegel and Kerin Hope, states that bailout lenders have “joined forces to push Athens to agree on a rescue plan by the end of this week that will demand difficult economic reforms in return for access to €7.2bn in desperately needed aid.”

The report states that the country’s three creditors from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have hammered out proposals to present to Greece on Wednesday.

Senior Eurozone officials are concerned that Athens may reject the plan as it purportedly requires Greece to achieve primary budget surpluses of as much as 3.5% of the GDP.

On Monday, Athens presented its own proposals in 47 pages.

An obstacle to an agreement could be the IMF that is skeptical about Greece’s ability to meet the ambitious surplus targets. It wants the eurozone governments to give assurances to agree to restructure Greek debt mainly held by EU creditors.