Eurozone, IMF fail to heal Greece bailout rift

27 Jan, 2017

Eurozone finance ministers failed to bridge deep divisions with the IMF over Greece's bailout on Thursday, reaching no agreement on debt relief. The International Monetary Fund and the 19-nation single currency area are battling over how much debt relief Greece needs, and over economic targets required of Athens that the IMF says are too stringent.
"Today we will not be able to go into depth on the Greek issue... We will have to wait," said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, the Eurogroup's most influential member, as he arrived for talks with his eurozone counterparts to discuss Greece.
The months of bickering have delayed progress of Greece's 86-billion-euro ($92.4 billion) bailout programme agreed in 2015 and stalled crucial loan payments that Athens will need by this summer to avert rekindling the debt crisis.
The IMF, headed by the tough-talking Christine Lagarde, refuses to lend further to Greece without significant changes to the requirements demanded of the Greek government.

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