Photo: BloombergBrussels: Eurozone finance ministers meet Monday as far apart as ever on the debt relief measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for it to back their bailout programme for Greece. “We are going around in circles,” one EU official said, as an end-of-year deadline to resolve the impasse looms large. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and French President Francois Hollande agreed Saturday that “a deal on a technical level is needed by (Monday) and measures for debt relief by the end of the year are imperative”. During a May review, the European Union and IMF agreed to start discussions on debt relief by end-2016 if Athens met its reform pledges. Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem told European lawmakers that debt relief measures would be discussed Monday in the hopes of persuading the IMF to sign on to the bailout.

Source: Mint December 04, 2016 14:30 UTC