Greece

Greece will only receive more loans from the euro zone if the International Monetary Fund joins its latest aid programme, the head of the bloc's bailout fund said on Monday, spelling out a condition thus far disregarded by Athens's creditors, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Greece needs a new tranche of financial aid under its 86 billion euro bailout by the third quarter of the year or it faces the risk of defaulting on its debts.

Greece’s public debt and financing needs will prove “explosive” in decades to come unless Europe overhauls its bailout program to ease the load, the International Monetary Fund says in a draft report as the country seeks a fresh loan payout, Bloomberg News reported. In a baseline scenario, Greece’s government debt will reach 275 percent of its gross domestic product by 2060, at which time its gross financing needs will represent 62 percent of GDP, the IMF says in the report obtained by Bloomberg. The government estimates public debt around 180 percent of GDP at present.

Two historic Greek newspapers, including the country’s best-selling daily, will cease publication, the debt-ridden Lambrakis Press Group announced on Saturday. “To Vima weekly and Ta Nea daily are forced to cease their publication within days due to financial reasons,” the company said in a statement, The Guardian reported. Lambrakis Press Group (DOL) “is lacking any available resources and as a result it can’t support the printing of its newspapers and, of course, can’t ensure the unhampered operation of the other media outlets it owns,” it added.

Greece hopes stronger than expected public accounts in 2016 will convince its lenders to sign off on a bailout review without demanding more austerity, government officials said on Thursday, the International New York Times reported. After meeting his euro zone counterparts in Brussels, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said that last year's primary surplus - which excludes debt servicing costs - reached 2 percent of gross domestic product, beating a target of 0.5 percent of GDP set in its bailout plan.

Greece's prime minister on Wednesday marked two years in office, promising "not another euro" of new austerity measures by his left-wing government, as talks with bailout lenders over deeper cuts remain at an impasse, the International New York Times reported. Alexis Tsipras , 42, defeated established political parties in elections on Jan. 25, 2015 on a promise to scrap existing bailout agreements and austerity measures.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday signaled she wouldn’t intervene in the conflict pitching the Greek government against its creditors over its decision to give low-income pensioners a Christmas bonus, The Wall Street Journal reported. The spat comes amid concern in the eurozone that the country’s seven-year debt crisis could flare up again as Athens deviates from its strict fiscal obligations under a longstanding bailout deal. “This is not the place where decisions get made. This is in good hands with” international creditors and eurozone finance ministers, Ms.

European bailout monitors have suspended planned debt-relief measures for Greece in response to a surprise move by Athens to spend an extra €600 million on poorer pensioners in breach of its international commitments, the Irish Times reported. European finance ministers this month agreed to short-term debt-relief measures that would cut Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio by up to 20 percentage points.

Greece’s crisis is approaching a potential breaking point after a year of relative calm, as a government with declining political stamina confronts creditors’ unyielding demands, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ruling left-wing Syriza party, grappling with slumping popularity, is considering the option of calling snap elections in 2017, as it loses hope of winning concessions on debt relief or austerity from the eurozone and International Monetary Fund.

The eurozone and the International Monetary Fund are at loggerheads in their attempts to reach a deal that would allow the IMF to join the EU’s €86bn bailout of Greece, the Financial Times reported. Talks between euro area ministers and the IMF on Monday broke up with little headway having been made in resolving splits over the programme, despite ministers approving a set of “short-term” debt relief measures for Greece.

Greece’s finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos believes Greece has a good chance of escaping its seemingly endless debt crisis by 2018 – provided it gets a helping hand in coming months from Germany over debt relief, the International Monetary Fund over austerity, and the European Central Bank on bond-buying, The Wall Street Journal Real Time Brussels blog reported. If the eurozone continues to delay the resolution of festering problems such as the Greek debt question, then more voters will conclude that Europe’s existing political order isn’t working, he argued.