"We would like to inform you that we are seeking a new loan facility from the International Monetary Fund," Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos wrote in a letter to Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF.
Earlier, talks on tying up a new bailout deal for Greece failed to start as had been expected, with officials blaming security worries for delaying the negotiations with international creditors - who are detested by many Greeks.
Greek government officials had said this week that the talks on the third bailout programme worth up to €86bn would start in Athens today.
But representatives of Greece's creditor institutions - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund - said they cannot begin until the right location is found, given the talks' sensitivity and the wide public anger about austerity policies imposed under the first two bailouts.
"There are some logistical issues to solve, notably security-wise," a European Commission official said.
"Several options are on the table," the official said, without giving more details.
The Greek parliament has already approved two packages of reform measures, a prerequisite for starting the formal negotiations to hammer out details of the new bailout.
However, another source close to the talks said Greece had been asked to do more on reforms before top international officials could come to Athens.
The government of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held five months of acrimonious talks with the creditors before they finally offered to start talks on a new bailout - and only after the government missed a debt repayment to the IMF and had to close local banks for three weeks.
Mr Tsipras accepted the creditors' terms even though Greek voters had rejected an earlier offer in a referendum...................http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2015/0724/716984-greece-bailout-talks/24/7/15
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Greek bailout talks to start on Monday after delay...
ReplyDeleteTalks between Greece and its international creditors over a new bailout package should go ahead on Monday after logistical issues that delayed meetings this week are resolved, a Greek official said on Saturday.
The meetings with officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund had been expected to start on Friday but were delayed by organizational issues including the location of talks and security.
The finance ministry official said talks were now expected to get underway formally on Monday after the logistical issues were resolved. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied that the government was trying to keep the lenders' team away from government departments.
"We don't have any problem with them visiting the General Accounting Office," the official said......reuters.com
25/7/15