The Greek debt on the Eurogroup table. “Could not understood without the IMF” – The Republic

MILAN – Greece back under the spotlight of the Union, with the Eurogroup of finance ministers of the single currency which discusses debt Athens and aid for the government of Alexis Tsipras.

Austerity in exchange for aid. the agenda for the Brussels meeting provides the green light to a tranche of 10 billion in aid, as part of a plan to more than 80 billion, the greek prime minister is expected after passing in Parliament the latest austerity measures demanded by international lenders. The approved package, which goes by the acceleration of privatization in a number of safeguard clauses on indirect taxes to avoid deficit overruns, allowed the Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, to believe that there are “conditions to arrive today to an agreement. ” Athens has pledged to achieve a primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP to cash the money of the partners: the time, on the other hand, starts to grip since Athens in July will have to pay 3.4 billion to the ECB. For the IMF, critical of the greek bailout, a similar commitment from the Tsipras government makes the financial structure of unsustainable public finances.

The debt node. But the bailout is just the first knot around Athens. A bench press, for some time, is the demand manifests the IMF to cut the greek debt. A theme that has seen the sharp contrast between Christine Lagarde, director of the IMF, and Germany Angela Merkel: strongly in favor of a clean break of the debt first, which has threatened to abstain from Washington consortium of aid in case it does not would make the sustainable greek debt; contrary to the second, who would not want to hear about new votes on aid to Athens before the election. In recent days, however, the distances between the parties seem to have shortened. According to the President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem , before today’s meeting said that without an agreement the Fund “would be very difficult” because “many eurozone countries have markedly superior always said that they want the IMF soar on board. ” Position reiterated by the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, while fellow Italian Pier Carlo Padoan said: “We must do everything because Greece back on the market”

At this point, an agreement revolves around difficult technical balances. In the short term, to lower the cost of the greek debt the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) could acquire the loans of the IMF, to replace them with lines of credit in the longer term and lower interest. In 2018, when the bailout program will be concluded, he could put his hand to reschedule its existing debt (currently it is 320 billion that just weigh less than 180% of GDP), or delay the start of the interest payments (which for now are frozen). Among the options, including the possibility of paying in Athens the proceeds of the purchase of securities entered in the European programs of the ECB’s portfolio.

The Greek debt holders

Topics:

Greece

Eurogroup

Starring: