European sovereign debt crisis timeline

The Greek on economic matters, headed by Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos is expected to depart for the annual IMF meeting in Washington, Wednesday. The highly anticipated conference, which will also be attended by all Eurozone Ministers, is expected to clarify the stance of the Fund on the Greek bailout program.

Greece is likely to meet by next week the conditions for the release of a 2.8-billion-euro loan from the eurozone, concluding a first phase of an aid and reform plan agreed with international lenders, senior eurozone officials said on Friday.

The Greek government has assured Brussels that this month it will fulfill all prior actions outstanding from the first bailout review and pave the way for the disbursement of a subtranche of 2.8 billion euros.

The eurozone will not release additional bailout money for Greece at a meeting in Bratislava this month, Germany's Handelsblatt Global reported on Sunday, citing European Union diplomats.

Disbursement of Greece's next bailout tranche will take place on Monday, a source in the Finance Ministry has told Kathimerini.

According to the same source, a compromise on the issue of non-performing loans is still elusive, but an agreement may be postponed after the payment of the 7.5 billion-euro loan.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insists that the discussion for a possible Greek debt relief might take place after 2018, even though he has already expressed his optimism regarding an agreement between Greece and its leaders in Eurogroup meeting to be held on May 24.

The Eurozone agreed that debt relief for Greece should be accomplished by capping its debt servicing costs at 15% of the GDP. Eurogroup Chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem – the Dutch FinMin – said on Thursday that there is “a broad understanding about the method we should choose, that is to look at the annual financing needs for the sovereign debt.”

International ratings company Fitch has upgraded Greece?s credit rate by one notch, right after the declaration of first privatization project turning over 14 major airports to a German company, following a new credit agreement having been reached with the tripartite committee of Troika consisting of European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank on August 14.

The Moody’s credit ratings agency has expressed doubts over whether implementation of terms linked to the 3rd Greek bailout plan is possible, as expressed in a report.

Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) Daniel Gros argued that if the IMF had not participated in the Greek bailout plans the country’s debt would be manageable, in an interview to German Radio Deutschlandfunk.