Eurozone finance ministers lavished praise on
Greece for its austerity efforts on Monday, but were not expected to
immediately approve the release of a bailout tranche that Athens need
to avoid bankruptcy.
A debt sustainability analysis is still in the works, Finnish
Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said, noting that ministers would
"probably" meet again later this week - as Greece must refinance 5
billion euros (6.4 billion dollars) of maturing treasury bills on
Friday.
"Greece has done an awful lot of work and has showed some real
resolve, so it's now for the creditors to do the same," the managing
director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde,
told journalists as she arrived for Monday's talks in Brussels.
French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said he would be pushing
for the Eurogroup panel of ministers to at least deliver a "decisive"
political agreement.
"Maybe we won't solve today all the problems - it's quite likely -
but we have to move on and to get out of this meeting with a
political agreement in order to make a decisive step," he said. "I
think Greece deserves that, the Greek people deserve that."
Late Sunday, the Greek parliament had approved a 2013 budget that
introduced additional spending cuts and tax hikes for the next two
years - hot on the heels of separate budget-cutting measures approved
in the southern European state.
"It is a good sign that, in Greece, a wide majority of lawmakers
knows its responsibility - even in the light of understandable
protests from the population," German Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble said. "It shows an earnest will."
"They seem to be fulfilling all the conditions they were asked to
fulfil, and I hope things will go well for them," Irish Finance
Minister Michael Noonan added.
A long-awaited report by Greece's international lenders - the
so-called troika of European Commission, European Central Bank and
IMF - also strikes an upbeat tone, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude
Juncker said on Monday morning.
"The troika report is fundamentally positive, because the Greeks
have really delivered," Juncker noted.
But Greece's debt mountain continues to cause concern, with data
released by the EU last week showing that it is on track to reach
almost 190 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2014. Athens
had been tasked with slashing it to 120 per cent of GDP by 2020.
A draft agreement prepared for Monday's meeting suggested that
Greece be granted an additional two years to nurse its finances back
to health given its "deeper-than-expected economic recession,"
according to a copy seen by dpa.
The draft memorandum of understanding said that, unless a 2016
deadline is set, Athens would need to find 20.7 billion euros (26.3
billion dollars) in cuts for 2013-2014, instead of the 11.5 billion
euros originally planned.
"The extension of the adjustment period should not be seen as a
way to reduce the effort," the draft said. "The deeper recession
means that the adjustment effort is equally strong."
But "more time also costs more money," Austrian Finance Minister
Maria Fekter warned, expressing doubts that politicians would be
ready to ask their taxpayers for additional funds to help Greece.
