Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | Over the period of nine months that it took to complete the second programme review, the role of the International Monetary Fund as Alexis Tsipras’s strongest ally to secure debt relief was one of the many curved balls that the flew past the Greek prime minister.
The Greek government has given authorisation to local firm Energean Oil and Gas and Spain’s Repsol to explore and operate hydrocarbon deposits in the region of Aitoloacarnania, in western Greece.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | The stock phrases came thick and fast after Monday’s Eurogroup. “Great progress,” “very close” and “an agreement in a few weeks” were a few of the perennial quotes trotted out again by officials following a failed attempt to settle differences over Greek debt relief.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | A Greek businessman, a Greek minister, a Greek opposition MP and a German official go to an economic conference. The German ends up being the only one that defends the Greek position. It may sound like a bad joke but it is a sad reality.
Greece’s creditor countries in Europe do not feel like giving it a debt ‘haircut’. Furthermore, Greece says that the IMF is too pessimistic about the future. But Europe wants the IMF’s participation, which would give the agreement a greater hallmark of respectability.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | The meeting of the International Monetary Fund’s executive board on Monday ended without any clear conclusion on where the IMF stands in the Greek programme.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | Often, the decisions taken by the eurozone that shaped the Greek crisis at pivotal moments and sealed the country’s fate were defined by the limitations that the decision makers were facing and not the approach that would have produced the optimal result.
Yiannis Mouzakis via Macropolis | The Cypriot experience makes it abundantly clear that Greece’s only chance of returning to any kind of normality can be found at the end of its bailout programme.
“What is clear is that Greece cannot pay its debt and will never pay it. There needs to be an acquittance. And European legislation does not allow for waivering of debt. What they are going to do now, and it should have been done seven years ago, is to modify the conditions in such a way that the debt will be practically waivered,” says Spanish economist Fernando Eguidazu, as he leaves his Foreign Office post of Secretary of State for the European Union.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | The Greek government expects the economy to grow by 2.7 percent and living, working and investing in Greece might seem a more enticing prospect. It is difficult, though, to be anything other than cautious about the prospects of such a turnaround. Firstly, there will have to be a dramatic improvement in several sectors of the economy for this kind of growth to be achieved.