ECB

Moody’s has given a ‘Credit Negative’ in its report regarding the delays in the completion of the first review on the Greek stability program by the country’s creditors. The ratings agency warns that if talks drag into July it would raise the risk of a liquidity crisis in the Greek economy, which would in turn hinder any talks of a debt relief.

Greece has offered to automatically cut spending as a contingency plan for further financial aid, using official data as a trigger point if bailout targets are missed, a government official said on Tuesday.

The Greek government is rushing to close a deal with its creditors in an extra ordinary Eurogroup on Thursday during Orthodox Easter week, in a desperate effort to receive a disbursement to cover its financial obligations to the IMF and ECB in summer.

The Greek government is ‘loading’ the ‘tab’ of the measures on low income earners, in an effort to strike a deal with its creditors before Orthodox Easter. Greeks with a monthly salary between 650 and 2,000 Euros will shoulder the taxation and social security reforms, with employees expected to see an immediate impact on their wages in May, if the bill is passed after Easter.

Greece and its creditors (IMF and EU institutions: the Quartet) will resume talks on the implementation of necessary measures in an effort to reach a deal, in Athens, Tuesday. There is little hope for any deal until the Eurogroup meeting takes place in Amsterdam, on Thursday, April 22.

The negotiations between the Greek government and the representatives of lenders broke off at around 2:00 am after a 7-hour round of talks without reaching any agreement.

The new round of talks will resume on April 18 after the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said.

The Euroworking Group meeting held on Monday in Brussels with the participation of the heads of the institutions did not reach any agreement on when the ‘Quartet’ will return to Athens so as to move a step closer to the conclusion of the program review.

The members of the so-called “Quartet” of Greece’s creditors (EC, ECB, ESM and IMF) are preparing for their next visit to Greece around February 1 say sources. They will stay at a central hotel in Athens and meet with Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos as well as a number of other MPs.

Greece’s creditors from the EC, ECB, ESM and IMF want an additional 3 billion euros worth of measures to be implemented in Greece in 2016 and a total of 6-7 billion euros by 2018.

291 lawmakers in Greece sanctioned an omnibus bill of 13 prior actions with 153 voting in favor, 138 voted against.

The new bill gives the right to sell bad business loans from local banks to overseas distress funds as part of a new austerity bill demanded by bailout lenders from the rest of the eurozone.