Creditors To Visit Athens Soon To Discuss The Third Bailout For Greece

Athens will be getting a visit from its creditors, the International Monetary Fund, European Union and the European Central Bank, after passing the second set of reforms through its parliament on Thursday. Representatives from these organisations are likely to fly in on Friday to hold talks on the third massive bail out deal worth €86 billion with Athens, the Greece Finance Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

However, Skynews reported that according to a European source, the talks on the bail out treaty may not be held on Friday itself and only few representatives from these organisations are expected to arrive before the weekend. "Our people haven't bought their airline tickets yet," the source said.

Since the acceptance of austerity conditions for the third massive bailout by Greece, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has faced vehement opposition from his countrymen as well as from his own party members. Two sets of reforms had to be passed through parliament, with the help of the Pro European Union Opposition party. The reforms covered a number of crucial sectors of the Greek economy which implied that Greece had to forego a portion of its sovereignty to save its debt ridden economy from falling out of the Eurozone.

On Thursday, the Finance Ministry released figures which showed that spending in Greece has already been reduced by 11 per cent in the first six months compared to the amount spent during the same period in 2014.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the IMF still hasn’t confirmed whether it would be funding a third bail out for Greece. Since the past few weeks, the IMF has been insisting that Greece’s debt be restructured to ensure that the nation doesn’t get suffocated while trying to implement the reforms for the repayment of its debts. The Eurozone has said that it would consider relief for Greece to some extent but has not confirmed anything as of yet. “On the debt relief, there would need to be a specific, concrete commitment,” said Gerry Rice, the top spokesman of IMF, in a news briefing.

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