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Greece Asks for More Time as Junker Visits Athens

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Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called for “more time” to carry out policy changes to address with Greece’s debt woes as he prepared to receive Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker in Athens.
“All we want is a little more air to breathe to get the economy going and increase government revenue,” Samaras was quoted as saying in an interview with Germany’s Bild newspaper published today before the arrival of Juncker, who heads the group of euro area finance ministers. “More time doesn’t necessarily mean more money.”

Limited concessions to Greece are possible as long as they are made within the framework of the second aid program for the over-indebted country, Norbert Barthle, the parliamentary budget spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said yesterday. Options include front-loading aid for Greece, fellow CDU lawmaker Michael Meister said.
Juncker is due to meet with Samaras at 5:30 p.m. in Athens as Greece remains at the heart of the crisis almost three years after the turmoil began. With contagion spreading to Italy and Spain, the European Central Bank is working on plans to help lower government borrowing costs after ECB chief Mario Draghi announced proposals on Aug. 2 to re-enter the bond market.

via Bloomberg.

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza

@alfonso_forex

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