La Greece scores a good result on the debt market and continues negotiations to collect the next tranche of aid. This morning the Treasury of Athens placed quarterly bonds for 1,625 billion euro. This was announced by the Greek public debt management agency (PDMA), specifying that the interest rate stopped at 4,24%, slightly down on the last three-month bond auction (4,31%).
Meanwhile, the Greek government continuedto the negotiations with the technicians of the Troika (EU, ECB and IMF). The package of budget cuts for the two-year period 2013-2014 is still on the table, an indispensable condition for international creditors to grant new funds for 31,5 billion euros. Without these resources, Athens risks default within a few weeks.
The premier Antonis Samaras he said he was optimistic: “Greece will soon have the new tranche of aid to pay off its debts, recapitalize the banks and inject liquidity into the market. Then the fear of returning to the drachma will end. For the first time in Greece there is a strong popular consensus that supports major and necessary structural reforms”.
However, the road ahead will be longer than expected. Yesterday Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras he assured that negotiations with the Troika will continue even after the European summit of 18 October, from which - it is now certain - no significant news will emerge for Athens.
However, signs of relaxation are coming from Germany. Angela Merkel acknowledged the country's considerable progress in the field of reforms: "A lot can be said about Greece - underlined the chancellor this morning in Berlin, where she met the German employers' association -, but in that country much has been put into motorcycle". Although the recovery is proceeding more slowly than hoped, Merkel believes that "something has changed in the general mentality".
Also this morning the representatives of the Troika – the Germans Matthias Mors (EU) and Claus Mazuch (ECB) and the Danish Poul Tomsen (IMF) – met the Greek Minister of Labour, Yannis Vroutsis, to resume negotiations. Some of the main measures requested by international creditors concern employment contracts in the private sector: the 50% cut in compensation for dismissal from January 2012 (therefore retroactive), the reduction of the notice period for dismissal from six to three months and the abolition of the three-year salary adjustment.
