Όπως επισημαίνεται, το κενό προέκυψε καθώς οι κεντρικές τράπεζες της ευρωζώνης αρνήθηκαν να μετακυλίσουν τα ελληνικά ομόλογα που κρατούν, και έρχεται σε μια στιγμή που ακόμη και το πρόγραμμα ιδιωτικοποιήσεων στο οποίο συμφώνησε η Αθήνα πέρυσι, βρίσκεται εκτός στόχων.
Οι αξιωματούχοι υπογραμμίζουν πως σε αντίθεση με προηγούμενες αποκλίσεις, αυτή τη φορά το «φταίξιμο» δεν βρίσκεται στην Αθήνα αλλά στις πρωτεύουσες της ευρωζώνης, ενώ απέδωσαν τις καθυστερήσεις στις ιδιωτικοποιήσεις σε «εξωτερικές πιέσεις».
Αυτό το έλλειμμα θα υποχρεώσει τους υπουργούς Οικονομικών της ευρωζώνης να συζητήσουν εναλλακτικές πηγές χρηματοδότησης, συμπεριλαμβανομένης της πιθανότητας ενός νέου προγράμματος διάσωσης μέχρι το τέλος του έτους.
Πηγή: capital.gr
Ολόκληρο το άρθρο στα αγγλικά
IMF to suspend aid payments to Greece unless bailout hole plugged
The International Monetary Fund is preparing to suspend aid payments to Greece by the end of next month unless eurozone leaders plug a €3bn-€4bn shortfall that has opened up in Greece’s €172bn rescue programme, according to officials involved in management of the bailout.
The gap emerged after eurozone central banks refused to roll over Greek bonds they hold, and comes amid signs that even the scaled-back privatisation plan Athens agreed to last year is falling behind schedule.
Officials involved in the Greek talks emphasised that, unlike previous slippages in the bailout, the fault did not lie with Athens but rather in other eurozone capitals. They also blamed privatisation delays on “outside pressures”.
But under IMF rules, governments must have at least 12 months of financing in place to receive IMF disbursements under any bailout programme. This latest shortfall means Greece’s financing needs are now only covered up to the end of July 2014.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the committee of eurozone finance ministers, said at a meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday night the group implored Yannis Stournaras, their Greek counterpart, to quickly complete talks with the “troika” of international lenders by next month to avoid a crisis.
A quick deal with Athens would enable the IMF to distribute its next aid tranche before they were forced to cut Greece off at the end of July. “We need to finish the review at the beginnig of July,” said Mr Dijsselbloem, who stated negotiators would return to Athens at the start of next month “at the latest”.
But finalising the next payment quickly has been thrown into doubt by upheaval in Athens, where the coalition government is at risk of collapse over the decision by Antonis Samaras, prime minister, to shut down the state broadcaster.
“I love Greece but I’m very much looking forward to a eurogroup press conference where Greece is not going to be discussed and a summer where we don’t have any Greek crisis,” said Olli Rehn, the EU economic commissioner.
Even if the IMF were able to distribute its aid in July, it would only delay the day of reckoning until the next disbursement later in the year. However, that would likely fall after Germany’s parliamentary elections on September 22, avoiding a need for the Bundestag to address the issue during the campaign.
The shortfall will still force eurozone finance ministers to discuss “alternate sources” of funding, said an official, including the possibility of a fresh bailout programme by the end of the year.
An alternative short-term fix would be for Athens to delay repayment of government arrears, but this could hamper any economic recovery in a country that has seen five years of deep recession. Greece could also issue more short-term debt, but this is something lenders had sought to curtail.
The IMF’s line on Greece has hardened in recent months. It recently admitted to mistakes in Greece’s first bailout while criticising the eurozone for failing to agree sooner to restructuring Greek debt.
The latest gap emerged after national central banks, which were urged by eurozone leaders to roll over €3.7bn in Greek bond holdings, refused to do so when the first redemptions came due last month. That forced bailout lenders to speed up aid payments that were originally to go for other purposes later in the programme.
According to three senior eurozone officials, the problem was nearly compounded when some central banks balked at passing on the profits they made on their Greek bond holdings back to Athens, which is to contribute €2.1bn to Greece this year. But the holdouts, including France, have in recent days backed down, officials said.
Greece this month failed to sell off Depa, its state-owned natural gas company, and other government assets are running into similar challenges, officials said.
The troubles in the Greek programme come as eurozone finance ministers on Thursday night were forced to debate revising Cyprus’ €10bn bailout following a written request by the island’s president for major changes in how the programme restructured Cyprus’ two largest banks.
In a letter to the Financial Times, Christos Stylianides, a Cypriot government spokesman, said Nicosia remained committed to meeting the terms of the bailout agreement, but felt the need to raise issues that could prevent targets from being hit.
“The objective of the president’s intervention was to bring to the attention of our European partners important issues that are inhibiting the achievement of the objectives of the [bailout agreement],” Mr Stylianides wrote.
Πηγή: ft.com
