Desperate Eurozone to borrow BILLIONS to fund Greece rescue amid fears of crash

THE eurozone's bailout fund is borrowing tens of billions so it can fund a rescue plan for Greece, amid fears the country's debt crisis could once again send shockwaves through the bloc.

By LANA CLEMENTS
PUBLISHED: 13:53, Tue, Jan 10, 2017 | UPDATED: 17:48, Tue, Jan 10, 2017

Express

The Luxembourg agency responsible for doling out rescue money - the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) - is turning to markets to raise the extra cash needed for the Greek debt relief programme.

The ESM is now issuing €57billion (£49.5bn) in long-term bonds - up 14 per cent from original plans - to cover the bail-out programme.

Greece wants to sell smaller stake in gas grid operator - paper

Wed Jan 11, 2017 | 2:47am EST

Jan 11 Greece wants to keep a majority stake in its gas grid operator DESFA and sell only a small holding to investors after a previous plan to sell a 66 percent stake collapsed, a Greek newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Under its privatisation programme, a key part of its international bailout, Greece and its biggest oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum had agreed to sell the DESFA stake to Azerbaijan's SOCAR for 400 million euros ($422 million).

Greece Heads Into Another Economic Crisis: Time To Finally Exit The European Union?

JAN 5, 2017 @ 06:00 AM 15,499 VIEWS
Fortune

Doug Bandow ,   CONTRIBUTOR
I write about international politics, economics, and development.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

ATHENS, GREECE—Constitution Square has been uncommonly quiet. When looking at the parliament building from my hotel window last month all I could see were cars and pedestrians. The crowds of demonstrators, so common in recent years as the Euro crisis enveloped one of Europe’s poorer states, were absent.

But maybe not for long. Athens and its creditors are at loggerheads again.

When I spoke with the Defense and Foreign Ministers in early December, the conversations focused on Turkey’s crisis, negotiations to reunify Cyprus, and security cooperation with America. The first was beyond Greece’s control. The second has been a political football for more than four decades. The third has been a positive constant for years, with the current left-wing Syriza Party government as friendly to the U.S. as any right-leaning administration.

How Greece’s Troubled Economy Could Turn Around in 2017

Nicholas Economides
Updated: Jan 03, 2017 8:48 PM UTC
Fortune

Violating the terms of its bailout program, the Greek government recently announced that it will distribute a sizeable “Christmas gift” to Greek pensioners even though this requires additional borrowing from the EU since the Greek budget is not balanced and Greece cannot borrow from money markets. The move has prompted the EU finance ministers to freeze implementation of debt restructuring. Greece is at the brink again.

Greece’s New Year of Living Dangerously

Tsipras is antagonizing creditors again, setting the stage for a new bailout showdown and an election.

The Wall Street Journal

By YANNIS PALAIOLOGOS
Dec. 21, 2016 3:05 p.m. ET
4 COMMENTS
If last year was the year of upheaval and survival for Alexis Tsipras, this year has been the year of the slow grind. As we near the end of 2016, Mr. Tsipras finds himself squeezed—by Germany and the International Monetary Fund, by Turkey and the refugee crisis, by his false promises and collapsing popularity—to the point of political extinction.

Euro zone lenders confident on quick solution on Greek debt spat: source

Wed Dec 21, 2016 | 1:57pm EST

 Reuters

Greece's euro zone lenders are confident a solution can be found shortly on reactivating short-term debt relief measures that were suspended after Athens decided to make an unexpected payout to poor pensioners, a euro zone source said on Wednesday.

Lenders said last week they were suspending a deal clinched earlier this month to offer Greece short-term debt relief after leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he would grant low-income pensioners a pre-Christmas payout.

Greece's Debt Problem Has Reached A Dangerous Point

DEC 21, 2016 @ 07:12 PM


John Mauldin ,   CONTRIBUTOR
I write about how you can make sense of unpredictable markets

Before the Italian banking crisis and referendum, before Brexit… there was Greece. Greece’s debt crisis was really the first public crack in the European Union’s armor and one that has yet to be repaired.

Readers who want to understand why anti-EU sentiment and nationalism have developed in many of these countries don’t have to look at migration or other controversial topics. Simply look at Greece and how it has fared after adopting the EU’s austerity terms.

The Greek experience with austerity-linked financial support from the EU has been painful and—making matters worse—rather ineffective. While Greece is on the periphery, its problems are hardwired into the entire EU, and those problems are spreading.

German Finance Minister tells paper euro zone will fall apart if don't follow rules

 Tue Dec 20, 2016 | 4:52am EST

Reuters

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, asked about Greece's plans to pay pensioners a Christmas bonus while it is in the midst of a bailout program, told Die Zeit paper that the euro zone would fall apart if countries did not stick to the rules.

Greece’s Long Winter

An early election would signal how much reform voters will support.

The Wall Street Journal

Dec. 19, 2016 7:11 p.m. ET
1 COMMENTS
Europe has a packed election schedule for 2017, and it’s set to grow more crowded if Greece holds another vote. The snap parliamentary poll that looks increasingly likely won’t solve the country’s economic problems, but at least the exercise would have the virtue of clarifying for Greeks and the rest of the eurozone how much reform Athens will be able to undertake.

Greece Pushes Forward With Measures Opposed by Creditors

Eurozone froze debt-relief offer over plans for pensioner benefit and suspension of sales-tax rise

The Wall Street Journal

By MARCUS WALKER and  NEKTARIA STAMOULI
Updated Dec. 15, 2016 1:12 p.m. ET


ATHENS—Greece refused to back down in its rapidly escalating conflict with creditors, as lawmakers on Thursday passed measures to loosen the purse strings in a move that has angered Germany.

The fiscal largess, including a Christmas bonus for 1.6 million low-income pensioners and the suspension of a sales-tax increase on Aegean islands that have received refugees, led the eurozone to freeze debt-relief measures for Greece on Wednesday. Eurozone officials have criticized Athens for breaking promises to consult creditors before making any fiscal moves that could affect Greece’s bailout goals.

Eurozone Suspends Short-Term Debt Relief for Greece Amid Growing Friction

Move comes in response to Tsipras’s surprise fiscal gifts for pensioners and other Greeks, which creditors say run afoul of Athens’s bailout commitments

The Wall Street Journal

By VIKTORIA DENDRINOU
Dec. 14, 2016 12:18 p.m. ET


BRUSSELS—Greece’s European creditors suspended proposed debt-relief measures for the country after the Greek government surprised them by announcing it would boost welfare benefits for low-income pensioners, a sign of escalating tensions over the country’s bailout.

The moves come as Athens and its international creditors—which include the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund—are struggling to conclude their latest review of the country’s rescue plan of as much as €86 billion ($92 billion) in loans.

Greece Heads Toward New Crisis in Debt Saga as Support for Tsipras Slumps

The ruling Syriza party is considering calling snap elections in 2017, as it loses hope of winning concessions on debt relief or austerity from Greece’s creditors

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI and  MARCUS WALKER
Dec. 12, 2016 1:48 p.m. ET
36 COMMENTS
ATHENS—Greece’s crisis is approaching a potential breaking point after a year of relative calm, as a government with declining political stamina confronts creditors’ unyielding demands.

The ruling left-wing Syriza party, grappling with slumping popularity, is considering the option of calling snap elections in 2017, as it loses hope of winning concessions on debt relief or austerity from the eurozone and International Monetary Fund.

No decision for elections has been made, said Greek officials, who added that they would review the state of negotiations in January, after pressing creditors again to show more flexibility.

The IMF is Not Asking Greece for More Austerity

Posted on December 12, 2016 by iMFdirect
By Maurice Obstfeld and Poul M. Thomsen
Versions in عربي (Arabic); Français (French); Deutsch (German); ελληνικά (Greek); and Español (Spanish)
Greece is once again in the headlines as discussions for the second review of its European Stability Mechanism (ESM) program are gaining pace. Unfortunately, the discussions have also spurred some misinformation about the role and the views of the IMF. Above all, the IMF is being criticized for demanding more fiscal austerity, in particular for making this a condition for urgently needed debt relief. This is not true, and clarifications are in order.

International migrant-smuggling ring dismantled in Greece

The Washington Post

By Associated Press December 12 at 10:20 AM
ATHENS, Greece — Greek and British authorities say they have dismantled an international ring suspected of smuggling hundreds of migrants to Britain and other European countries using falsified travel documents.

A Greek police statement says that 24 suspects were arrested last week in the Athens area, and another nine in Glasgow, Northampton and Manchester in Britain.

Greece Needs Fiscal Breathing Room

We’ve exceeded our targets and ended up with a surplus. The wise thing to do would be to give it back to the citizens.

The Wall Street journal

By FRANCISCOS KOUTENTAKIS
Dec. 12, 2016 3:17 p.m. ET
0 COMMENTS
This will be the second year in a row that Greece has beaten its primary fiscal targets. In contrast to the pessimistic projections of its creditors, Greece’s authorities have proved themselves capable of delivering on the country’s promises.

Prime Minister Announces Handouts as Strike Cripples Greece

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDEC. 8, 2016, 3:21 P.M. E.S.T.

The New York Times

ATHENS, Greece — As thousands of Greeks protested against government spending cuts during a general strike that crippled the country Thursday, struggling Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced one-off measures to ease the burden on pensioners and island residents.

Tsipras said the government would distribute a total of 617 million euros this Christmas to some 1.6 million low-income pensioners, replacing a holiday bonus scrapped by Greece's bailout creditors.

In a nationally televised address, Tsipras said the cash would come from a larger-than-expected surplus in Greece's primary budget, which excludes the cost of servicing the country's crippling debt.

Tsipras has seen his popularity plummet after a series of income cuts and tax hikes demanded by creditors. His left-wing Syriza party trails the main opposition conservatives by more than 10 percentage points in opinion polls.

Βερολίνο: "Οι εξαγγελίες Τσίπρα δεν συζητήθηκαν στο Eurogroup"

Άγνοια των παροχών Τσίπρα είχε το γερμανικό υπουργείο Οικονομικών και το Eurogroup. Ως επικοινωνιακή φυγή προς τα εμπρός λόγω των εσωπολιτικών πιέσεων βλέπουν γερμανοί αρθρογράφοι τις χριστουγεννιάτικες παροχές του.


deutsche welle

Ούτε το γερμανικό υπουργείο των Οικονομικών, αλλά ούτε και το Eurogroup γνώριζε για τις χθεσινοβραδινές εξαγγελίες του έλληνα πρωθυπουργού σχετικά με τις παροχές προς τους χαμηλοσυνταξιούχους και το πάγωμα του ΦΠΑ στα νησιά των Αιγαίου με μεγάλη προσφυγική ροή. Σε ερώτησηπου απηύθυνε η Deutsche Welle προς την εκπρόσωπο του γερμανικού υπουργείου Οικονομικών, εάν είχε γνώση των εξαγγελιών Τσίπρα το υπουργείο της, η Φρεντερίκε φον Τιζενχάουζεν μας απάντησε ως εξής: «Όχι, το θέμα δεν συζητήθηκε ούτε και στο Eurogroup της περασμένης Δευτέρας. Αλλά είναι υπόθεση των θεσμών να αξιολογούν τέτοιου είδους μέτρα».
Ο γερμανικός τύπος κάνει αναφορά στο αιφνιδιαστικό, όπως το χαρακτηρίζει, διάγγελμα του έλληνα πρωθυπουργού προς τον ελληνικό λαό με παροχές προς τους συνταξιούχους και τους κατοίκους νησιών με πολλούς πρόσφυγες. Ορισμένοι αρθρογράφοι εκφράζουν έκπληξη για αυτήν την κίνηση του κ. Τσίπρα σε μια κρίσιμη περίοδο έντονων αντιπαραθέσεων και αγώνα δρόμου προκειμένου να κλείσει η δεύτερη αξιολόγηση.

Greece, Not Italy, Still Poses Biggest Challenge to Eurozone

A crisis in one country only becomes a crisis for the whole eurozone when a collective European response is required, Simon Nixon writes

The Wall Street Journal

By SIMON NIXON
Dec. 7, 2016 3:27 p.m. ET
4 COMMENTS
Not for the first time this year, the doom-mongers have been confounded. The Italian referendum over the weekend resulted in a resounding defeat for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who promptly announced his resignation. Yet the sky didn’t fall in, the euro dipped and then rallied, and Italian bonds and bank stocks barely budged. Other European assets were also largely unmoved.

Give Greece Credit, Even Just for Treading Water

25DEC 6, 2016 1:23 AM EST
By
Mark Gilbert
Bloomberg

Here are two things I'll bet most people don't know about Greece. The country's just-appointed minister of economy and development, Dimitri Papadimitriou, was lured away from his position as head of the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College in America. He's not a member of the ruling Syriza party. And the man appointed secretary general for public revenue in January is Giorgos Pitsillis, a professional tax lawyer. He's not a party member, either.

Europe's Still Dithering Over Greece

Bloomberg
Editorial Board
DEC 7, 2016 12:30 AM EST
This week, the European Union’s finance ministers granted some new debt relief to Greece. The new “short-term” measures are better than nothing -- but they’re less than a convincing solution to a problem that has dragged on far too long.

The deal, sketched out and agreed to in principle earlier this year, should help the Greek government convince voters to keep accepting much-needed domestic reform. That’s good. It isn’t enough, though, to put the country’s debts and budget plans on a sustainable footing. That’s why the International Monetary Fund, whose support will be necessary to achieve that larger goal, isn’t yet on board. After years of muddling through, the issue still isn’t resolved.