Greek bailout inspection over – or not

There seemed to be confusion over the state of the Greek bailout talks on Friday.

Inspectors from the so called troika – the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank – contradicted a statement from the Greek government that a review of the country’s progress under a bailout deal was over.

The head of the IMF’s mission for Greece, Poul Thomsen, said hopefully it will be concluded positively soon.

Angry Greeks have targeted the talks blaming the troika for their troubles, pensioner Panayiotis Vassiliou said: “People are justified in being angry with the austerity measures which are very harsh. The fact that we are in this situation right now is the politicians’ fault at the end we will have to fix our economy with these measures.”

The head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the troika inspectors will finish their report on Greece on 24 October.

He also said he expects them to approve the next instalment of bail-out cash – to prevent Athens running out of money.

Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said this week that his country can pay its bills only until mid-November.

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