Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY 1 MAART, 2017

A10 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 1 March 2017

Greece’s creditors back in Athens as bailout talks resume

NICHOLAS PAPHITIS and the labor market will
Associated Press unlock more bailout cash
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — for Greece — meaning it
Greece resumed long-de- will have enough money
layed bailout talks with its to pay off debts due in July
creditors Tuesday as figures and avoid a potential exit
showed bank deposits in from the euro, or Grexit.
the cash-strapped country Finance Minister Euclid
running at a 15-year low. Tsakalotos said he expects
Representatives from the talks to last “a week
Greece’s bailout inspec- or ten days” and that the
tors in Europe and the In- aim is to achieve a “pre-
ternational Monetary Fund liminary” agreement by the
have resumed talks with next scheduled meeting of
the Greek government on eurozone finance ministers
further reforms following a on March 20.
months-long delay caused “So we are now at the
by disagreements over the point where we wanted to
appropriate austerity mix. be — not from the point of
Enacting the reforms to view of timing but as a pro-
such things as pensions cedure,” he said.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, left, speaks with board members of the Greek Bank Associa-
tion at Maximos Mansion in Athens, on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017. Representatives of European Union
institutions and the International Monetary Fund returned to Greece after the government gave
into demands to maintain painful cost-cutting measures after the current bailout program ends
next year and even beyond the current term of the government, which ends in 2019.
(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

“We are now in a proce- in July ($7.6 billion) alone. government and its credi-
dure where everything will The government’s time- tors resumed, Prime Minis-
be agreed as a package,” line for an agreement that ter Alexis Tsipras heaped
including fiscal measures, would allow Greece to blame on domestic banks
budget targets after the join the European Cen- for the country’s long-last-
current bailout expires in tral Bank’s bond-buying ing financial crisis.
mid-2018 and debt relief, program and tap markets He told leading Greek
all which will be submitted later this year has already bankers that “the crisis
to Greece’s parliament for been derailed, prompting started from banks’ inability
approval. renewed speculation that to provide liquidity (to the
Greek government officials the country could face economy) and will finish
have insisted that any new another default and even with the end of this inabil-
pain that will emerge from Grexit in the summer — or ity.”
the discussions will be fully be eventually forced to Most economists attribute
offset. seek yet another bailout. the seven-year crisis to
No specific details have The uncertainty has pushed years of profligate gov-
been provided. Greek bond yields higher, a ernment spending, which,
Greece is under renewed sign of diminishing market combined with under-
pressure to resolve dis- confidence, while domes- reporting of key budget
agreements with lenders tic deposits fell to a new figures destroyed inves-
ahead of a mid-summer 15-year low in January, tor confidence and left
spike in its debt repayment according to the Bank of Greece unable to borrow
schedule that it would be Greece, after a 1.5 billion- from money markets. The
unable to cover without euro outflow — despite economic meltdown sub-
the resumption of bail- strict controls in withdraw- sequently hit Greek lend-
out loan payouts. Greece als enforced in 2015. ers, which required large
owes around 7 billion euros As talks between the Greek capital injections.q