Financial crises

 Fiscal gap at 3.3 bln euros if primary surplus target is kept at 3 pct, and at 1.2 bln if it drops to 1.5 pct

By Sotiris Nikas

By Eleni Chrepa & Nikos Chrysoloras

Greece repaid a loan due Monday to the International Monetary Fund, further depleting cash reserves that risk running out this month unless a deal is reached with European partners.

Cyprus will not need all of the 10-billion-euro bailout it received in 2013 as its economy is recovering faster than expected, the country?s finance minister told AFP.

Greece and the OECD group of industrialized nations signed on Thursday a cooperation deal aimed at helping the crisis-hit eurozone country carry out reforms, officials said on Thursday.

"The OECD will provide Greece with the know-how regarding the design and the implementation of reforms which are the priorities of the Greek government," a Greek official said.

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

Greek banks are struggling to stay alive, according to observers, as the flight of deposits and their only marginal replacement by liquidity supplied from the Eurosystem are not allowing the local credit sector anything more than the mere serving of cash flow needs.

According to the Greek Finance Ministry, the first 310 million euros installment of a loan from the International Monetary Fund will be repaid today.

Citing an anonymous Government source, Reuters news agency reported on Friday that "the payment of 310 million euros has been made, with a Friday value date."

Barely a year after emerging from a savage recession comparable in its intensity to the Great Depression in the U.S., Greece's economy is shrinking again.

The government on Monday scrambled to find ways to raise much-needed funding amid renewed speculation about a third bailout for Greece.

When Kemal Dervi? was asked to sort out the Turkish economy fourteen years ago, few were hopeful. In 2001, this country was in the midst of its worst economic crisis in modern times and Dervi? was given little chance, despite his 22-year career at the World Bank. He was seen as an inexperienced outsider with little knowledge of domestic politics.

There is no reason to consider the idea of Greece defaulting on its debt, European Central Bank Governing Council member Ardo Hansson said on Wednesday.