The US president, Barack Obama, has signalled he will use a critical two-day visit to Athens this week to step up calls for the country to be given “meaningful debt relief”. At around €330bn (£284bn), or 180% of gross domestic product, Greece’s staggering debt is by far the biggest in the EU. Tsipras, whose popularity has plummeted as a result of enforcing measures he once promised to eradicate, has now made debt relief a priority. Berlin’s hardline finance minister, Wolfgang Schauble, has repeatedly ruled out debt relief until after next year’s general elections at the earliest. “Debt relief for Tsipras would be a huge win in the Greek political calculus,” said Alec Mally, an economist and former US diplomat based in Athens.

Source: The Guardian November 13, 2016 19:39 UTC