Greek bailout News

Austerity-wracked Greece could strike a deal with its creditors by early next year, a senior EU official said Sunday, seeking to calm a recent row over surprise handouts announced by Athens.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she did not expect to take any decisions on Greece`s bailout programme during talks in Berlin on Friday with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

The International Monetary Fund will not join the Greek bailout programme but will likely accept a special advisory status with limited powers that keeps it at the table, two senior sources with direct knowledge of the proposals said.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde denied on Sunday that IMF staff would push Greece closer to default as a negotiating tactic on a new Greek bailout deal, which she said was "still a good distance away."

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will reappoint Euclid Tsakalotos as finance minister, a senior source in his leftist Syriza party said on Tuesday, to offer continuity in bailout talks with international lenders.

The EU on Monday congratulated Alexis Tsipras on his left-wing party`s re-election victory and said Greece has "no time to lose" in implementing the reforms agreed as part of its international bailout.

In a campaign speech in the northern town of Thessaloniki, Tsipras offered no new policy ideas but pledged thousands of new jobs and an attack on corruption.

Greece raised Wednesday 1.137 billion euros ($1.280 billion) in an auction of six-month treasury bills at the same 2.97 percent interest rate it last sold them at last month, the Greek Public Debt Management Agency said.

The leftist Syriza party of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will challenge Greece`s creditors on unresolved aspects of the nation`s bailout but implement unpopular reforms it has already agreed, it said on Sunday.

Eurozone finance ministers on Wednesday formally approved the first tranche of a new 86 billion euro ($95-billion) bailout for Greece after parliaments in member states backed the move.

The German parliament voted by an overwhelming majority Wednesday to back a third bailout for Greece, with Chancellor Angela Merkel spared a major rebellion of deputies opposing the aid.

The Greek government on Tuesday revealed it was easing slightly the capital controls imposed on the debt-hit country by allowing individuals to transfer 500 euros ($550) per month abroad.

German lawmakers broke off their holidays on Tuesday to debate Greece`s third bailout plan before approving it, though Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a rebellion in a vote shaping up as her last chance to keep Athens in the eurozone.

The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it had received a letter from Greece seeking a loan facility.

Greece's creditors will head to Athens shortly to open talks on a huge new international bailout, the government said today, as parliament approved a second batch of reforms needed for negotiations to go ahead.

The International Monetary Fund said Thursday that talks soon to open on a third EU-IMF huge bailout for the Greek economy will not be easy.

Greece`s international creditors are satisfied with the Greek parliament`s adoption Thursday of a second batch of reforms needed to unlock another bailout for the cash-strapped country, an EU official said.

Greece`s leftist government tried on Wednesday to contain a rebellion in Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras` Syriza party ahead of a vote in the evening on reforms required to start talks on a rescue deal.

A first set of reforms that focused largely on tax hikes and budget reforms triggered a rebellion in his party last week and passed only thanks to votes from pro-EU opposition parties. 

"The road will be long, and judging by the negotiations tonight, difficult," Merkel told reporters, after bailout talks ended after more than 17 hours.