Greece has done its homework and the talks with the Troika have been "productive". Now the experts can go on vacation and work with Athens will start again in September. The EU Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, which in recent days have assessed the progress of the recovery of the Greek economy, have expressed a favorable judgment on the economic policies decided by the Greek executive "in line with the targets of the program of adjustment". “There has been a general agreement to strengthen political efforts to achieve these goals,” reads a note. The Greek authorities have pledged to proceed with determination in their work for the next month". And so the Troika approves the 11,5 billion package of cuts for 2013 and 2014 and which will bring further reductions in the salaries of civil servants and in pensions.
On the other hand, according to the by now classic recipe, austerity is the effort necessary to obtain the next tranches of aid in exchange. It will be fundamental the meeting between the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and the German and French leaders, Angela Merkel and François Hollande: on 24 and 25 August the three heads of state will discuss a possible extension of the terms to return to the parameters necessary to receive aid.
But the most imminent deadline is next August 20th: in two weeks indeed Athens will have to repay 3,2 billion of debt to the ECB which at the moment it does not have. It is difficult to imagine that Frankfurt will decide to defer the balance, we will have to see how Greece will emerge from this labyrinth, probably with a new issue of short-term bonds.
