Greece waits for eurozone decision

What to do with a problem like Greece, a seemingly enduring crisis? Eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday ruled out an immediate decision on the release of the next tranche of 31.5 billion euros of emergency loans. In Athens the troika’s representative, Poul Thomsen remained tight lipped and refused to talk to reporters saying simply, “no comment”. It’s understood a critical element of the troika report into the Greek economy is not yet ready. The news comes less than 24-hours after Athens passed an austerity budget for 2013. “Greece is running a marathon, one way or another. And there is a good thing that seems to be happening that most people understand, that this will be a marathon,” said financial analyst Theodore Krintas. The end result of that race should be to reduce Greece’s debt to 120 percent of GDP by 2020 that’s the level the IMF has deemed sustainable in the long-run. The governments forecast for next year is around 170 percent some put it at 190 percent. Measures under consideration to help reduce that debt include lengthening the maturity of loans. Greece may also borrow from the eurozone permanent bailout fund to buy back its privately held debt of which there is around 60 billion euros. Time is again against Greece. Athens has to redeem 5 billion euros worth of treasury bills in four days time and has been counting on cash from the next tranche to help cover that.