(Reuters) - Greece and
its international lenders will miss a self-imposed March 10 deadline to clinch
a deal that will release the next tranche of the country's rescue loans, three
senior Greek government sources said late on Friday.
But the talks will not be over by then
because the two sides are still at odds over a range of issues, mainly on
structural measures to boost the economy's competitiveness and over Greek
lenders' capital needs.
"The distance between us has narrowed
but we will still have work to do next week," one Greek senior government
official told reporters after a new round of talks with lenders. Greece's
ongoing review has been dragging on since September, making it the longest ever
since the country's 237-billion euro bailout began in 2010.
Austerity-weary Athens has become
increasingly defiant towards its lenders, who on their part are pushing for
reforms as the bailout is nearing its end. Greece has already obtained 218
billion euros of rescue loans but may need further funds to stay afloat.
Another two senior finance ministry
officials said that the heads of the EU/IMF mission will return to Athens
shortly after Monday's finance ministers' meeting, with a view to clinch the
deal by the end of March.
Greece has no pressing funding needs before
May, when 9.3 billion euros of its bonds expire, the biggest refinancing hump
the country will face in the next three decades. "We're on a very good
road for an agreement," one of the two finance ministry officials said.
Greece is hoping to get euro zone finance ministers on Monday to make a
statement that the talks have made good progress. To ease the talks'
completion, Greece has proposed removing the thorny issue of banks from the
current talks. One of the officials said he was optimistic that the issue would
not block a deal.
"I am confident it will not be a
problem for the review," the official said. The EU/IMF believe that Greek
banks' have higher capital needs than a 6.4 billion euro estimate announced by
Greece's central bank on Thursday.
(Πηγή: Reuters.com)