by Erick Mckenzie, moneyflowindex.org
The Greeks are running out of time. Greece’s creditors are running out of patience. European creditors turned up the heat on the Greek government to implement reforms if it wanted to avoid a default and even exit from the Eurozone. At a meeting in the Latvian capital in Rigga, the Greek finance minister faced rebukes from other ministers about the Greek government not being serious about implementing any reforms.
With days to go before Athens runs out of time, the Greek government is yet to provide a substantial list of reforms that it believes would be enough to secure funding from European creditors.
Mounting fears of a Greek debt default sent the country’s borrowing cost higher and prompted one prominent bookmaker to stop taking bets on whether or not Greece would leave the Eurozone. The jitters were sent through financial markets after a report in the Financial Times which said that the Greek government had made an approach to the International Monetary Fund to have bailout repayments delayed. Also, pessimistic reports of a breakdown in talks between the Greek government and its creditors had investors at the edge of their seats. It was also reported that the IMF had asked Greece not to make a formal request over delaying repayments. Greece is due to pay the IMF around 1 billion euros in two instalments.
Greek has relied on the 240 billion euros bailout that it had secured way back in May 2010. Since then governments have had to impose savage austerity measures. The new Greek government under Alexis Tsipras wants to do away with the austerity measures as it believes the measures have paralysed the Greek economy and has hampered growth. As of right now, the prevailing view in the market is that a deal might be reached but only just.
