Greece credit talks rescheduled
July 26, 2015
Technical teams from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union were scheduled to arrive in Athens over the weekend, but talks to finalize an economic package of 86 billion euros ($94 billion) for Greece would only begin on Tuesday, a Finance Ministry official said.
"The delay ... is due to technical reasons and not due to political or diplomatic reasons," the source told journalists.
Declan Costello of the European Commission, Rasmus Ruffer of the ECB, Delia Velculescu of the IMF and Nicola Giammarioli of the European Stability Mechanism would head the talks.
There was no confirmation from the EU, however, with a Commission spokesperson only saying that representatives would fly out to Athens "in the coming days," according to the news agency AFP.
Talks had been initially planned for Friday, but sources close to the negotiations said there were "logistical problems" holding up officials representing the international creditors.
Creditors will now need to speed up the discussions in time for August 20, when Greece is scheduled to repay another debt installment of 3.2 billion euros to the ECB.
Greece eases capital restrictions
The relationship between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his loan creditors has been difficult after Tsipras initially refused to implement changes in the country's pension and labor systems.
The country finally struck a deal with its creditors on July 13, ensuring it would get its bailout money in exchange for executing the required financial changes. The negotiations also made sure that Greece would not default on its debt commitments and crash out of the eurozone.
Meanwhile, the Greek central bank and Finance Ministry have eased capital restrictions in place since June 29. Businesses will now be able to make payments abroad, and Greeks citizens are able to travel abroad with 2,000 euros per trip, up from 1,000 euros. Shipping companies are able to withdraw up to 50,000 euros every day.
mg/cmk (AFP, dpa)