Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has signalled that his country could not survive beyond November if it isn’t granted the next tranche of bailout aid.
Samaras highlighted that the most important thing for Greece is liquidity and underlined the necessity of the international financing.
When questioned in the Handelsblatt interview how long Athens could survive without additional help he answered: “Until the end of November, then the cash box will be empty.”
Samaras also felt that the European Central Bank (ECB) could help out by accepting lower interest rates on Greek bonds and rolling over the debt at maturity. However, ECB President Mario Draghi ruled out the idea, because he considers it to be “monetary financing”.
In an International Herald Tribune conference held in Paris, Samaras also warned that a Greek exit from the euro would be “disastrous” for the Eurozone and could slash the Greek standard of living by up to 70%.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble gave some show of support stating that countries with problems should be allowed more time to reform but he did lash out at Greece by stating that all the other Eurozone states had made good progress on their austerity measures. He did however admit that Athens is in a “difficult situation”.
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rssGreece in last-minute talks on austerity cuts
Greek premier Lucas Papademos held last-minute talks on Sunday with international lenders on wage and pension cuts amid fears that political leaders may reject a second €130bn bail-out and plunge the country into a chaotic default.
Evangelos Venizelos, finance minister, said “It’s not an impasse but there are problems for the Greek side” over terms of a medium-term package being negotiated with the so-called “troika” – representatives of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The two sides were “quite far apart” over projected cuts of 25 per cent in private sector wages, 35 per cent in supplementary pensions and the immediate closure of about 100 state-controlled organisations with thousands of job losses, a Greek official said.
Mr Papademos held telephone conversations on Sunday with Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director and Mario Draghi, ECB president, in a bid to break the deadlock, the official added.
The three leaders of Greece’s national unity government were due to meet Mr Papademos later on Sunday to agree the package before it goes to eurozone finance ministers for approval next week.
It was not clear whether former socialist premier George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras, the conservative leader bidding to succeed him, would also meet the troika mission chiefs. (more…)