Greece, lenders locked in marathon talks for bailout deal
Greece and its international lenders were locked in marathon overnight talks to seal a multibillion-euro bailout deal on August 10, racing against a countdown to European Central Bank debt repayments falling due in days.
The indebted country is hoping to wrap up a deal for 86 billion euros ($94.75 billion) in fresh loans by August 11 so it can get parliamentary and other approvals for aid to flow by August 20, when a 3.2 billion euro debt payment is due to the ECB.
"We are going into the final round of talks, looking at the Memorandum of Understanding from beginning to end," a senior Greek government official said during a brief break in talks in Athens, referring to terms of the bailout accord.
The latest round of negotiations started early on August 10 afternoon.
An agreement would mark the end of a painful chapter on bailout talks for Greece, which fought against austerity terms demanded by creditors for much of the year before accepting a deal under the threat of being bounced out of the euro zone.
After lengthy negotiations on August 9 and August 10, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said talks were going "quite well" and was optimistic that an agreement will be reached soon.
A senior Greek government official said dealing with a mountain of non-performing loans in the banking sector remained a sticking point. Athens wants to set up a "bad bank" to handle this, while creditors want non-performing loans bundled and sold to distressed asset funds.