Benoit Coeure

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos will be the keynote speaker at an Economist conference in Frankfurt on Wednesday titled "Greece: A Comeback to the Financial Markets?"

Also addressing the conference will be Alternate Economy Minister Alexis Haritsis, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras and his fellow ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure.

Greece is making progress with reforms but it must clear several more hurdles before the European Central Bank will consider including its debt in its 2.3 trillion euro bond purchase program, ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said.

The head of the EuroGroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem disclosed the content of the April 7 Malta EuroGroup agreement between Greece and its creditors. In a letter he sent to the EuroGroup members Mr. Dijsselbloem presented the results of the Malta meeting. With regards to Greece the official meeting covers the following:

4. Greece – State of play

Agreement for measures of 3.6 billion Euro. Reductions in pension and tax-free threshold.

Dijsselbloem: After the completion of the technical agreement will talk about debt.

“We achieved great progress in the second evaluation after the previous Eurogroup, when on my initiative we changed the strategy on the things we negotiate about”, he added.

Finance Ministers from the common European currency zone are arriving in Brussels to take part in the March 20 EuroGroup meeting with Greece on main agenda.

Kathimerini understands that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is prepared to do whatever it takes to conclude the second review of Greece's third bailout so that it can join the European Central Bank's quantitative easing program (QE), on the condition that the government agrees to a package of pension cuts and a reduced tax threshold - amounting to roughly 2 percent of GDP.

Eurozone President Jeroen Dijsselbloem has issued a written statement following the informal mini-Eurozone meeting in Brussels, late Friday. “Today the Greek minister of Finance, the institutions (European Commission, ECB, ESM and IMF) and I had a constructive meeting on the state of play of the second review.

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the size of Greece’s primary budget surplus, which excludes interest payments, would be one topic of discussion at a planned meeting in Brussels later on Friday. Apart from Mr.

Greeks remain committed to the euro despite the sacrifices that have been demanded of them, European Central Bank executive board member Benoit Coeure told Le Parisien.

"Even with the sacrifices that have been demanded of the Greek people, they have never expressed a wish to leave the euro," he told Severine Cazes and Boris Cassel in an interview published on Tuesday.

Member of the European Central bank’s (ECB) executive board Benoit Coeure responded to US President Donald Trump that the adoption of a protectionist economic policy would be a bad idea.