Eurozone Doubts Greek Deal Will Be Reached Next Week

The euro zone is doubtful that a deal will be struck with Greece next week on economic reforms for bailout funds, potentially leaving the country perilously short of money.

Both the Greek government and its creditors have expressed the need for an agreement, at least in outline, to be reached when euro zone finance ministers meet in the Latvian capital Riga on April 24. But Athens has yet to produce a program of reforms that is deemed acceptable.

The German government said on Wednesday it was unrealistic to expect euro zone countries to be able to pay out a new tranche of aid to Greece this month.

“We are negotiating with Greece at the moment. If there is a reform list, then the next step is a so-called Staff Level Agreement to make formal changes to the conditions of the aid program. This is a complex process and no one in the Eurogroup expects this to be concluded by April 24,” a finance ministry spokeswoman said.

Berlin is not alone. Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir also doubted the chances of a breakthrough next week.

“Given that we have lost a lot of time, I am skeptical,” Kazimir told reporters after a Slovak cabinet meeting.

via Reuters

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.