Just kidding! The technical delegates of Greece’s lenders arrived in Athens on Thursday. But took position in several ministries today. They will start reviewing the execution and progress of the Greek fiscal adjustment program. Their aim is to check whether Greece has applied and implemented the lenders’ demands so that the next bailout disbursement of one billion euro will be released for the debt-ridden country and immediately being forwarded to pay interests for the ‘rescue’ bailouts.
The heads of the Troika representatives Thomsen & Co are expected to arrive here on September 20th.
Prior actions for the next disbursement of Eur1.0 bn in October are:
a) completion of the first tranche of public employee exits and transfers;
b) the restructuring of state-run companies Hellenic Defence Systems, Hellenic Defence Vehicle Systems and Larco Mining and Metallurgical;
c) repayment of govt arrears to the ATHEX-listed Athens Water and Thessaloniki Water utilities.
According to the existing financing programme, Greece is still to receive a total of cEur12.0 bn from EU by Q2 ΄14 and a total of cEur20bn from the IMF by Q1 ΄16 (largely covering bond and IMF loan maturities). The latest EU review (July 2013) identified a financing gap of Eur3.8 bn in 2014.
The IMF΄s latest review (July 2013) estimated the financing gap at Eur4.4 bn in 2014 and Eur6.5 bn in 2015. In other news, IMF said that the next review of Greece is scheduled for September 17th. (Capital.gr)
I read yesterday somewhere that Greece has to pay 7.5 billion euro interests alone for the year 2013.
PS Now I know why they call the Greek debt a ‘bottomless pit”.
