Greece

Eurozone leaders face a new round of brinkmanship over Greece’s €174bn bailout after international lenders failed to bridge differences on how to reduce Athens’ burgeoning debt levels, pushing the country perilously close to defaulting on a €5bn debt payment due next week, the Financial Times reported. Officials had hoped to finalise the new programme, which extends Greece’s rescue two years to 2016, at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday. That would free up a long-delayed €31.3bn aid payment desperately sought by Athens.

Greece’s Parliament narrowly passed a crucial austerity bill early Thursday, in a vote that left the coalition government reeling from dissent as it struggles to secure vital bailout funds, The Washington Post reported. The bill, which will further slash pensions and salaries, passed 153-128 in the 300-member Parliament. It came hours after rioters rampaged outside Parliament during an 80,000-strong anti-austerity demonstration, clashing with riot police who responded with tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon.

Eurozone leaders have given themselves three weeks to finalise an overhaul of Greece’s bailout programme, requiring parliamentary backing in creditor countries that are sceptical about reducing Athens’ interest rate burden, the Financial Times reported. But eurozone approval, which officials hope will be completed in time to release a long-delayed €31.3bn aid payment to Athens on November 27, will only be granted if the Greek parliament agrees to new austerity measures in a hotly-contested vote scheduled for Wednesday night.

Europe's governments and the European Central Bank are at odds about who should shoulder the financial burden of giving Greece more time to repay its loans and remain part of the euro zone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The search for a solution for Greece, whether by forgiving some of the money it owes or giving it yet more bailout loans, has come back to haunt the currency union ahead of the ECB's monthly policy meeting on Thursday.

Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, invoked the prospect of his nation tumbling out of the eurozone as he sought to rally wobbling MPs ahead of critical parliamentary votes that could determine whether the government gains access to a desperately-needed €31.2bn loan payment, the Financial Times reported. “We have to save the country from catastrophe . . . Leaving the euro would be a nightmare and we intend to avert it,” Mr Samaras said.

Greece's negotiations with international lenders for desperately needed rescue funds some two weeks before bankruptcy looms are stuck, the IMF said Thursday, sending Greek stocks plunging, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The International Monetary Fund said the talks were stalled over the conditions for financing Greece as it seeks a two-year extension to meet fiscal goals.

The magnitude of Greece’s fiscal challenge was painted in sharp relief on Wednesday as Athens unveiled new budget projections exceeding the worst-case scenarios envisioned by international lenders when they agreed a €174bn rescue eight months ago, the Financial Times reported. Instead of Greece’s debt peaking at 167 per cent of economic output next year, as predicted in the March bailout agreement, it will hit 189 per cent and climb to 192 per cent in 2014, according to projections presented to the Greek parliament.

Greece's coalition government will delay a vote on major new austerity measures by another week, warning Tuesday there would be financial chaos if a deal is not reached, the Associated Press reported. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras told reporters the austerity measures, worth (EURO)13.5 billion ($17.4 billion), would be submitted to parliament next week, as the three parties in government continue to disagree over new savings demanded by international bailout lenders.

Leading German politicians are rejecting calls for a restructuring of Greek debt that would lead to a direct loss for German taxpayers, but they are keeping the door open to other manners of reducing Greece's unsustainable debt load, including a debt-buyback program, The Wall Street Journal reported. Greece's private-sector lenders, who agreed to take losses on their investments in a massive restructuring of Greek debt, have refused to accept another so-called haircut on their holdings.

Passing a more-generous bailout for Greece through Germany's parliament could prove easier than expected for Chancellor Angela Merkel, after most of her coalition appeared willing on Friday to give Greece more time and financing to repair its economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Senior lawmakers in Ms. Merkel's conservative-led coalition signaled that the chancellor would likely face limited resistance in parliament against an expanded aid package for Greece, belying fears that Germany's legislature would balk at a third bailout deal for Athens since 2010.