27 May 2011

EUROZONE/ IMF/ GREECE: Juncker Threatens June IMF Payment...If Greeks Dally With Austerity; Greek Pols Can't Agree on New Measures.

BBC/

    Luxembourg's PM Jean-Claude Juncker (above) is still acting the grinch...against Greece.
   He warned that the IMF might stop paying Greece because it could not guarantee its solvency for the next year.
   Greece is due the next slug from its aid package...E12bn/$17bn usd...on 29 June... E3.3bn of it from the IMF.
   It would be the fifth tranche of the E110bn loan package from the EU and IMF.
    "Greece must implement the program fully and rigorously; this is very important to correct the errors of the past," Juncker said.
     But Juncker later said that if the EU and IMF are convinced by the new Greek austerity measures, there would be no problem with the next tranche of loans.

    Meanwhile, Greek leaders have so far refused PM George Papandreou's new austerity plan.
   Conservative Antonis Samaras rejected the measures saying they would "flatten the Greek economy and destroy Greek society".

FOR NYT COVERAGE By J. EWING:
    German FM Wolfgang Schäuble"...and other European leaders have grown impatient with the pace of Greek efforts to sell state assets, improve tax collection and make the economy more competitive. They are trying to maintain pressure on Greek leaders, while acknowledging that they may have to deal with the possibility that Greece cannot meet all its obligations." 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/business/global/27euro.html?ref=todayspaper