Creditors have grave concerns on Greece's compliance

Greece's creditors expressed disappointment regarding their recent visit to Athens during Thursday's session of the Euro Working Group.

The meeting concluded that the second compliance report "is not going very well," and with the creditors sticking to the same deadline (mid-February for the completion of the prior actions) there is huge pressure for the government to conform to requirements.

The point that generated the greatest concern on the part of the creditors - especially the European Commission, which is usually friendly toward the government - was the announced hike in the minimum wage.

"Not even the Greek experts had proposed a minimum salary hike of 11 percent," the meeting heard, as the eurozone's senior finance ministry officials appeared surprised at the increase level Athens decided on.

As they said during the course of the session, while the...