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EUROZONE FINANCE MINISTERS agreed today to release €4 billion in fresh aid to Greece “in the coming weeks” as part of a second bailout programme.
Some €2.5 billion will come from the eurozone rescue fund and €1.5 billion from European central banks, the ministers said in a statement issued after a meeting of the 17-nation Eurogroup.
On top of these payments, likely to be made this month, another €500 million from the eurozone rescue fund plus €500 million from central banks would follow in October. The International Monetary Fund will also put up €1.8 billion, bringing the overall total to €6.8 billion.
The payments were subject to certain conditions being met, said Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
Eurogroup said that while it recognised that the country’s programme is “broadly on track”, it stressed in a statement that “significant further work is needed over the next weeks to fully implement all prior actions required for the next disbursement”.
“Especially, the required reforms of the public administration will need to be carried out so as to increase the efficiency of the public sector while it is being steadily downsized, and further efforts are needed to improve tax revenue collection,” it added.
- Additional reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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Broadly on track??? None of the privatisations penciled in for 2012/13 have gone ahead, all savings targets missed, scaling down of public sector nowhere to be seen. What a fudge!
thats what you get when you say no dom
They didn’t really say no to anything. They said yes with fingers crossed under the table. They are just being the good auld lying-fudging Byzantine Greece with no traces whatever of their Hellenic history. The only thing they are getting the dosh is that the whole banking system in Europe would come down like the house of cards if the Greek debts were to be properly valued. The ECB itself would face a cash call of Eur400b. But this cannot the future for Greece. Once the fat lady will sing.
yep
there is an old saying
if you owe the bank a couple of quid you worry but if you owe them a fortune they worry
And the hole gets deeper!
And we keep digging.
I’m surprised the EU big wigs don’t get into the confectionery business; they’re rather good at fudge.
More inflation, more government more riots, less freedom, move poverty.
This is what bailouts cause.
The Euro Dream is coming to an end, my dearest technocrats.
How much is that per capita?
Thats money well spent….
Only about a tenth of what they need!!
Did you pull that figure out of your arse? Good man!!
I asked for a €1 million rescue fund and they turned me down.
I don’t see much of the public sector reform here or in Greece.
But then how could we expect the EU to oversee efficient public services when they are laden with bureaucrats? They just “celebrated” setting a 980m budget of their own.
The problem is that in hard times there’s a reluctance to add to the dole queues by sacking public sector workers as it makes the “numbers” look bad.
When times are good tax revenues are high so nobody thinks that this would be a good time to make the public sector smaller and more efficient, instead the fruits of the boom are blown on pay and perks and white elephants.
And so the cycle goes on and on ………..
Democracy at work…..giving people exactly what they want not what they need.
have your say