ATHENS--Greece will send a draft list of economic overhauls to
its creditors later on Friday, which it hopes will help unlock
bailout aid, two government officials said.
"The list is ready," a senior government official said.
Representatives from the Greek government are expected to leave
for Brussels later on Friday, where they will discuss the overhauls
with the heads of the teams overseeing the country's
bailout--representing the European institutions and the
International Monetary Fund.
"There will be back and forth over the weekend and the list will
be finalized along with the creditors" representatives by Sunday
evening," a finance ministry official said
Greece has accelerated its efforts on the overhaul plans in
recent days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel convinced Greek
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Berlin on Monday that there was
only one way for Athens to secure the financing it needs:
substantive economic overhauls.
As the county is running increasingly low on cash, it hopes that
eurozone finance ministers can meet and approve its overhaul
program as early as next Wednesday.
But European Union officials caution that the process could take
longer, and that finance ministers might confer only the week after
next, depending on how long it takes to negotiate policies.
Once the EU-IMF teams and eurozone finance ministers approve the
list of overhauls, Greece will have to pass at least a portion of
them into law to get fresh funding.
Greece has been hoping for some immediate relief by getting a
slice of its next EUR7.2 billion ($7.8 billion) aid tranche. That
could potentially come from either EUR1.9 billion in profits earned
from eurozone central-bank holdings of Greek government bonds or a
EUR1.8 billion disbursement from the currency union's bailout
fund.
Cash-strapped Greece has to pay EUR1.7 billion in pensions and
public-sector wages at the end of this month. Then it has to repay
a roughly EUR450 million loan from the IMF on April 9 and, in
mid-April, about EUR2.4 billion in short-term debt held by private
investors.
Write to Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com
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