No further comment from Stournaras on Schaeuble talk of third loan package

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras refused to make on Minday any further comment on his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble’s claim that Greece would need more loans.

Stournaras was asked about the German minister’s comments when he left a meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at the Maximos Mansion. “We put out a statement yesterday,” said Stournaras.

“As is known and was accepted at the last Eurogroup, Greece’s funding needs are covered until mid-2015,” the Finance Ministry said on Sunday after Schauble reportedly told Focus magazine that Athens would need “limited aid” again in the future. He put the figure in single digit territory.

“For the 2015-16 period the country’s financing needs will depend to a great degree on the results of the bank stress tests that will be carried out by the European Central Bank on a pan-European level,” the Greek Finance Ministry added in its statement.

Stournaras said that he only spoke about “prior actions and the next bailout instalments” with Samaras.

SYRIZA spokesman Panos Skourletis seized on Schaeuble’s comments as a sign that the government’s “narrative” is being disrupted and that Greece would have to agree a third memorandum. He also noted that the German finance minister told Focus that Greece would have to continue its reforms “if it wants to remain in the euro.”

Skourletis also dismissed any prospect of SYRIZA sitting at the same table as the government to discuss the issue of debt relief.