- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Eurogroup Expected to Decide on Sending Lenders to Greece on Monday

© AP Photo / Petros Giannakouris Greece
Greece - Sputnik International
Subscribe
EU Finance Commissioner stated that a team of Greece’s international creditors may be dispatched to Greece to continue the review of state reforms before signing off on the next bailout package.

Spain's Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sits on his chair at the Spanish Parliament in Madrid, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016 - Sputnik International
Acting Spanish PM: EU to Assist Turkey, Greece Address Refugee Crisis
BRUSSELS (Sputnik) A team of Greece’s international creditors may be dispatched to Greece to continue the review of state reforms before signing off on the next bailout package, EU Finance Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Monday.

"I think that today we will come to a unanimous decision to send the mission chiefs back to Athens. My point of view is that we should do that," Moscovici told reporters ahead of the Eurogroup meeting among the eurozone's finance ministers.

He argued that the review should be concluded "as soon as possible."

"This is the political decision that must be, in my view, taken today," the commissioner stressed.

The Greek economy has been severely strained for several years, because of the country’s multibillion debt accumulated after the 2008 world economic crisis.

Greece's main lenders, which include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and eurozone nations, signed an agreement with Athens in the summer of 2015, approving a third bailout package worth about 86 billion euros ($97 billion at current exchange rate) in exchange for highly unpopular austerity reforms such as pension cuts and tax hikes.

Under two previous bailout programs, the last of which expired on June 30, 2015, Greece received about $270 billion from the IMF, the ECB and eurozone countries. The aid also came in exchange for austerity reforms.

The international creditors need to sign off on a review of the reforms before any further aid can be released to Greece.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала