Greece’s government is on a mission to tackle tax evasion. And last week Swiss bank officials arrived in Athens to help. The country’s lenders support the move – but it’ll take much more than that to earn the next instalment of a crucial bailout.
Sources say Greece will run out of money on April 20
A list of reforms submitted by Greece on Friday has been sent back for further clarification.
EU COMMISSION CHIEF SPOKESPERSON MARGARITIS SCHINAS SAID: “We’re not there yet, this is why the talks should benefit from further fact-finding in Athens.”
The delay is no surprise says CIBC’s Jeremy Stretch.
“I expect an agreement will eventually be cobbled together but only at the eleventh hour. I think any agreement will have to require some form of conceding ground in terms of increases in VAT and I think the other potential sticking point could relate to pension ages and pension levels.”
Greece’s left-wing government was elected on an anti-austerity agenda.
It’s still refusing to give up on its aim to renegotiate its debt to make it more manageable.
But a recent upturn in the euro zone’s economy – largely linked to the ECB’s bond buying programme – could actually work against Greece.
“I think the ECB process has eased some of the concerns about a Greek exit scenario but I think we shouldn’t be blasé and just say let’s just let the Greeks go we don’t want to concede to any ultimate demands because I think that would risk opening a can of worms which could be very difficult to stop.”, Stretch said.
The Greek cabinet approved the reforms list late on Sunday.
The aim is to have a primary budget surplus of 1.5% of national output this year and growth of 1.4%.
The plan to link repayments with growth or exports is similar to one implemented in Germany after the second world war.
But that doesn’t mean modern day Berlin will approve and the clock keeps ticking.
Reuters sources say Greece will run out of money on April 20.
Ventuno/Reuters