Speculation is mounting concerning the next visit by Greece’s international creditors to Athens for the completion of the fifth fiscal review. It is believed that next Saturday is a likely date as Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis will have returned from the December 8 Eurogroup Conference and Greek Parliament will be ready to vote in the 2015 budget.
Sources state that an e-mail was sent to Greece by the troika of Greece’s lenders made up of the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The e-mail, sent at dawn on Wednesday, calls for clarifications and commitments for the covering of the fiscal deficit that troika estimates that Greece will have.
The government’s goal os for the negotiations to end so that the fifth review can be complete by the end of December in order for the bailout agreement to not be extended to January.
Teleconference meetings show that the IMF is the creditor that is exerting the most pressure on Greece, appearing dissatisfied with the compromise solutions already proposed by Greece in an e-mail sent on Saturday. The government had hoped that troika would have come to Athens for discussions on Wednesday so that the review would have started by the Eurogroup meeting on December 8.
There are a series of measures that troika is still calling for. Conservative New Democracy (ND) Antonis Samaras said that the government won’t accept any “irrational and unjustifiable” proposals. This remark came just three days after a fresh round of unpopular tax hikes and spending cuts were proposed by Athens in an attempt to bridge the differences with the troika.
An emergency meeting may be held during the Eurogroup meeting so that terms and details to be announced at the summit on December 18.
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