International development

It remained unclear late on Thursday night when dragging bailout negotiations might be completed and inspectors might return to Athens as Greek and foreign officials remained at loggerheads over key issues including pensions and labor market reforms.

Greece has reached an agreement with its creditors from the EU and the IMF on key reforms regarding the labour market, cutting expenditures and energy issues, thus moving closer to reaching a preliminary deal concerning the review of the fulfilment of the third rescue programme before the meeting of Finance Ministers of the Euro zone on April 7, reported Reuters, citing sources close to the neg

The new projection was presented at the conclusion of the IMF's annual mission to the country with the mission chief Nikolay Gueorguiev assessing Slovenia was on track but must press on with planned reforms.

A high ranking official from the Greek Finance Ministry expressed confidence that Greece and its creditors would reach a staff level agreement (SLA) by next Friday. He went to stress that only a minor issue on the labour front was open before the two parties could reach a deal.

Five leading financial institutions have signed a long-term financing agreement with German-Greek consortium Fraport Greece, which will soon be managing, operating, upgrading and maintaining 14 regional Greek airports under a 40-year concession contract.

Zorana Mihajlovic spoke on Sunday with seven executive directors of the World Bank led by Werner Gruber, about reforms implemented in Serbia.

The IMF Communications Director, Gerry Rice reaffirmed the Fund’s positions on Greece during the regular press briefing in Washington, Thursday. Mr.

Turkey has scored 71 out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) for 2016, according to the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) latest Human Development Report. 

The report said that Turkey's HDI value rose one place compared to 2015, putting it 71st with a score of 0.767, up from the previous year's score of 0.761.

A political upheaval has started in Athens after the creditors’ demand from the Greek opposition to back the economic measures after 2019 elections.

The first such statement was made by the French Finance Minister Michel Sapin. According to him, the IMF wants the country’s main opposition party, New Democracy, to practically sign the new measures.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday denied reports that it had demanded the Greek government to secure the support of the opposition in voting through measures sought by creditors to continue bailout negotiations.