Negotiation talks between gov’t and lenders break off

Although there was progress on large issues, there are still lot of other issues that could not be resolved

The negotiations between the Greek government and the representatives of lenders broke off at around 2:00 am after a 7-hour round of talks without reaching any agreement.

The new round of talks will resume on April 18 after the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said.

“We are adjourning” so that representatives of institutions and the Greek government may attend the meetings in Washington, DC on April 15-17, he said.

According to Mr. Tsakalotos, all four institutions (European Commission, IMF, ESM and ECB) and the government agreed to break off the talks.

As he said, they agreed that during the last ten days there was progress on large issues, which is expected to be stressed by the institutions in a relative statement.

However, there are a lot of other issues that could not be resolved, such as the fact that IMF insists that based on the measures to be taken, the primary surplus in 2017 and 2018 will be at 1.5% and will never reach 3.5%, as the government estimates and “European troika” has accepted.