Greek Bailout Talks for Next Tranche Delivery Break Off

Talks between Greece and its international creditors over the release of the country’s next slice of bailout cash have broken off for two weeks.

The creditors, known as the troika, are demanding further reforms and improved tax collection in return for the loan.

Greece is due to get the next 2.8bn euros (£2.4bn; $3.6bn) tranche of its bailout funds at the end of the month.

Greece has been struggling with years of spending cuts and tax rises.

The troika officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund held a three-hour meeting on Wednesday with Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, but they broke off talks and Mr Stournaras said the troika would return in late March or early April.

The country had to seek the bailouts to meet its debt repayments and budget shortfalls after years of overspending led private sector lenders to refuse to lend the country any more.

Greece was promised a total of 240bn euros from two bailouts and has received the majority of that – thereby lowering fears that Greece would have to exit the euro.

via BBC

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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