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Greek Loan May Be On Hold Again

The Eurozone is keeping Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on ice over a long-delayed loan installment

The Italian news agency ANSA, quoting European officials, said Eurozone finance ministers are unlikely to again – for the third time – act on a long-delayed $38.8 billion loan installment for Greece when they meet in Brussels on Nov. 26, and could put it off for a week.
They met for 12 hours last week without a decision and could be set to do the same again, the report said.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, already unhappy over the delays, especially after he acted on the orders of international lenders and rammed a $17.45 billion spending cut and tax hike plan through Parliament, has asked them to act. Social unrest and pressure against his uneasy coalition government is building.
Sources from Paris said that at a Nov. 24 tele-conference meeting of the ministers that had agreed on some measures to reduce Greece’s $430 billion mountain of debt, but maintained that a final decision would he put off, further vexing Samaras and giving his political enemies more capital.
Meanwhile, the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported on Nov. 25 that representatives of the Eurozone, in their Paris talks, were considering having Greece’s international lenders, the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) take partial losses, a so-called “haircut,” in a bid to further reduce the country’s debt by 2015.
The newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said at the meeting attended by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, that the Troika officials were considering backing off their unrelenting demands for more austerity measures that have worsened Greece’s five-year recession.
The newspaper Welt also talked about a partial write-off of Greek debt to encourage Greece to keep to commitments it has repeatedly broken. Greece is awaiting a second bailout of $172 billion, including the delayed first installment.
The Eurozone has been unable to convince IMF chief Christine Lagarde to go along with some debt relief measures. Schaeuble is reportedly open to being more lenient, which would be a change of heart for the hard-liner who has kept Greece’s feet in the fire.

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