Greece

Greece and its international lenders are not expected to reach agreement on the country's bailout progress before a meeting of euro zone finance ministers next Monday, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday. Talks between Athens, its European Union lenders and the International Monetary Fund over labour and energy reforms, fiscal targets and debt relief have dragged on for months rekindling fears of a new crisis in the single-currency bloc, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

After a few days of relative calm for Greece’ two-year bond, the country’s short-term debt has sold off sharply again in the last few hours as Athens’ central bank chief has made series of stark warnings about the economic consequences of the country’s latest bailout impasse, the Financial Times reported. The yield on a bond maturing in April 2019 has now leapt over 35 basis points to 8.8 per cent but remains below an eight-month high of close to 10 per cent hit last week.

Greek debt sold off sharply on Thursday amid fears the country’s bailout lenders will not be able to bridge their differences in time to lend Athens the €7bn it needs to avoid bankruptcy, the Financial Times reported. The International Monetary Fund has refused to sign on to the aid programme unless EU authorities grant further debt relief to Greece, but the rift deepened after the head of the eurozone’s €500bn rescue fund dismissed the IMF’s demand. Eurozone finance ministry deputies were locked in meetings on Thursday night attempting to resolve the dispute.

Investors in cash-strapped Greece appear to be losing faith in a pledge from European officials five years ago that the country's default would be a one-off, Reuters reported. It was partly the strength of that promise that allowed Greece to make one of the fastest returns to markets of any defaulted sovereign, taking money from private investors in 2014 just two years after it had imposed hefty writedowns.

Greece pushed back against the International Monetary Fund’s view that the government’s economic reforms are heading off track, Bloomberg News reported. In official responses, published with an IMF report on Greece late Tuesday, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said the fund’s assessment was not based on recent evidence, while Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras said it downplayed progress on the financial sector and was unduly pessimistic.

A split between the euro area and the International Monetary Fund over Greece’s bailout deepened on Tuesday as one of Europe’s most senior policymakers and the country’s finance minister criticised the fund for being overly pessimistic about the country’s prospects. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the eurogroup of finance ministers, said in an interview with the Netherlands’ RTLZ that a bleak IMF report on Greece released on Tuesday represented an “outdated” view of the Greek economy and “must be honest” in its assessments, the Financial Times reported.

Greek government bonds are a relative sea of calm on Monday after last week’s “violent” moves, as officials in the International Monetary Fund prepare to discuss their participation in the country’s €86bn bailout later today. After renewed market jitters over Athens’ bailout compliance, Greece’s 10-year bond yields have fallen back from two-month highs this afternoon to around 7.4 per cent, the Financial Times reported. The sell-off has eased as the IMF’s executive board will meet to discuss their involvement in Greece’s three-year rescue agreed in the summer of 2015.

In a related story, The Wall Street Journal reported that Greece is struggling under its austerity regime and new questions are mounting as to whether it can satisfy its bailout terms. Some people in high places know just whom to blame—a statistician in rural Maryland. Before Greece’s debt crisis, its governments manipulated statistics and masked the size of budget deficits, waste and patronage. The statistician, Andreas Georgiou, moved from the U.S. to become Greece’s first independent head of statistics in 2010.

Greek farmers, many on tractors, have once again been blockading roads and border posts amid mounting signs that the country long at the epicentre of Europe’s debt woes is – once again – teetering towards crisis. Protesting farmers have been a regular feature of the social unrest that has sporadically gripped Greece, the Irish Times reported. It is now more than seven years since the Greek financial crisis erupted and the debt drama has often had a déjà vu quality about it.

Investors are dumping Greek bonds, fearing that Athens will be unable to pay debt that comes due this summer, The Wall Street Journal reported. The selloff comes as the Greek government is again at a standstill in negotiations with its creditors in the eurozone and at the International Monetary Fund. Athens needs to break the deadlock and secure more aid before about €6 billion ($6.5 billion) in debt has to be repaid in July.