Greek withdrawal from the eurozone

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, has praised Greece's progress on reforms while saying that implementation of the adjustment program coupled with an agreement on debt relief are key to leading the debt-wracked country out of the crisis.

Senior Greek bank officials visiting Washington in the context of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have had contacts with major European and US lenders aimed at expanding their funding lines via the interbank market.

Germany's outgoing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said that a proposal in 2015 that Greece take a "timeout" from the euro had been supported by the majority of eurozone finance ministers.

"That was the majority in the eurogroup, not me personally," Schaeuble said in an interview with the Financial Times published Sunday.

There's much to criticize about Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's outgoing finance minister: It can be said that he is obsessive and spiteful, and that his humor at the expense of Greece often bordered on sadism. That he - and Chancellor Angela Merkel - did very little to resolve the Greek crisis.

Euro Working Group chief Thomas Wieser on Wednesday said he was in favor of a Greek exit from its bailout program without any form of credit line but under strict monitoring by the eurozone.

The eurozone must first identify its problems, then see what changes to its institutions are needed to fix them, eurozone finance ministers said on Friday during informal talks on the future of the single-currency area.

Inaugurating the Thessaloniki International Fair on Saturday night, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared that "Greece is turning a page," and that had moved from "Grexit" - the risk of exiting the Eurozone - to "Grinvest" as investor interest grows.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday backed Germany's proposal for a European Monetary Fund (EMF) but stressed the ultimate goal should remain a eurozone budget.

"We should head toward a European Monetary Fund but this should in no way be mixed up with a (eurozone) budget," Macron said during a visit to Athens.

French President Emmanuel Macron is sending a message of optimism to Greece, only hours before he lands in Athens on an official visit, in an interview to newspaper “Kathimerini”. “I am aware of the efforts made by the Greeks, I know the feeling of injustice they may have felt. But I am optimistic about the future of Greece.

Greece is in a "much better position" today than it was a year ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a traditional summer news conference on Tuesday in which she appeared upbeat about the prospects of eurozone economies.