Greece urged to speed up reforms to get more bailout cash
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — European creditors urged the Greek government Friday to speed up the implementation of a series of economic reforms so it can get its hands on the next batch of bailout cash before the end of October.
Greece, which depends on the money due from the bailout to stay afloat, has recently fallen short of its commitments to reform its economy, stoking some concerns of a renewed flare-up in the country’s debt crisis. Because it hasn’t delivered on the reform promises it has made, it can’t yet get hold of the 2.8 billion euros ($3.2 billion) that is next due from this current phase of its bailout program.
“Summer is over, we really need to restart and pick up on the time lost and the Greek minister, our Greek colleague, was I think convinced there’s a joint interest for all of us to keep this on track,” Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone’s top official said at a meeting of European finance ministers in the Slovak capital of Bratislava.
As part of last year’s third bailout agreement, which is potentially worth up to 86 billion euros, Greece promised to meet a series of reforms to such things as pensions and labour markets, in return for the money that it needs to prevent going bankrupt and possibly exiting the euro currency.