Greece says it wants reform deal with lenders by early May
Greece says the country and its lenders must reach a reform deal by early May to address Greece's need for cash, as the debt-stricken country seeks to receive the last tranche of its bailout, worth €7.2-billion euros (USD 7.8 billion).
"There is clearly a potential and an imperative need for an interim deal to be concluded in the first days of May, if not within April," Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis said in an interview with Avgi newspaper, the mouthpiece of the leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, on Saturday.
Athens, which is expected to pay the International Monetary Fund almost 1 billion euros (USD 1.1 billion) in May, has said that it wants to honor its obligations and needs lenders to offer something in return.
"We are mainly requesting that the current liquidity problem be recognized as a problem of common responsibility and that it be jointly addressed," Dragasakis said, adding, "Otherwise, the country's ability to smoothly service its external obligations would be in an ever-growing contrast to Greek people's survival."
Athens is currently locked in talks with the EU and the International Monetary Fund over a list of reforms it is expected to carry out.
On April 11, it was revealed that the European Union had offered Greece nearly a week to present its package of reforms for its international bailout plan before it can mull releasing the emergency funding to keep the Greek economy afloat.
The offer was revealed by German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) citing Eurozone representatives, who expressed “shock” at the lack of action by Athens in its implementation of structural reforms in exchange for pledged loans, giving the country until April 20 to submit its reform plans ahead of the April 24 meeting of the Eurozone ministers.
Greece’s debt stems from the 240-billion-euro (USD 270-billion) bailout loan it received from the so-called troika of international lenders -- the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission -- to prevent bankruptcy in 2010.
Greece’s creditors are urging the country to cut pensions and go ahead with civil service layoffs and a number of major privatizations, which the government expressed its opposition to in January.
On April 1, hundreds of Greek pensioners took to the streets in several cities across the country to show their anger at the austerity measures in the debt-ridden nation.
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