Positive outcomes and an agreement foreseen by Thomsen

The hope that the Troika evaluation will be completed soon and will even be positive was expressed by the head of the Greek delegation of the IMF, Paul Thomsen, specifying however that discussions are still ongoing.

“We have made great progress but we still have to discuss some important issues”, stated Mr. Thomsen to reporters, according to Reuters.

“We hope to reach an agreement soon, but we are not there yet”, he added.

Earlier the Reuters agency, based on anonymous sources, had stated that “negotiations with the IMF over the Greek rescue package are ongoing and there was no final agreement”, contradicting reports of the Greek government that consultations with its IMF auditors were completed.

It seems that the measures and negotiations with the IMF are not “locked”, although, according to the Finance Ministry, there was a feeling that they had been. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is expected to continue negotiations with the European Commission on Friday.

A top official of the Troika stated on Wednesday that “the sixth installment will only be disbursed if Athens does more to convince lenders that it can apply its reforms”.

An IMF member stated that “without support, Athens may run out of money next month, resulting in default, which would lead to a deeper European recession”.

Source: Reuters