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GreekReporter.comGreek NewsEconomyOct. 13 is D-Day (Decision, Not Default) for Greece

Oct. 13 is D-Day (Decision, Not Default) for Greece

ATHENS –  Greece will know on Oct. 13 whether international lenders will release an $11 billion loan installment needed to keep the country from going bust and unable to pay its workers and pensioners, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said after his country’s Lower House of Parliament gave initial approval to a plan boosting the European Union’s rescue fund for beleaguered countries. Final passage depends on approval of another branch of Parliament later.
In an interview with the newspaper Die Zeit, a German weekly, Schauble – who has in the past appeared skeptical of giving Greece more aid – said the debt-hit nation should be given more time to sort out its fiscal shortcomings. “We must give Greece more time, and that will benefit our common currency. If our common currency fails then the damage will be greater, as we benefit [from it] more than the Greeks do,” he said.
Eurozone Finance Ministers will decide on October 13 “whether the conditions are

Greece's economic crisis has German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble scratching his head for ideas

met for the next tranche to be disbursed,” he said during the Parliamentary debate. “I cannot say what this decision will be, I cannot anticipate the conclusions of the Troika,” he added, referring to the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank consortium of lenders.
As he spoke, Troika auditors were in Athens to review the country’s books and see if Prime Minister George Papandreou is keeping pace with privatizations they demanded as a condition of releasing the loan, part of a $152 billion bailout. They were met with protests as trade union members occupied nearly a dozen ministry buildings, angered at pay cuts and tax hikes that the Troika forced Papandreou to push through his Parliament, which is PASOK Socialist party controls.
Speaking to German business leaders in Berlin on Sept. 27, Papandreou had asked Germany and the EU for more time and money. Athens says it has enough cash to pay the bills until the end of October, but even if the Troika auditors decide they are doing enough to merit more financial aid, Eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund will still have to sign off on the money.
(Sources: Kathimerini, AP, AFP)
 

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