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Greek failure to make IMF payment deals historic blow to eurozone
BY IAN TRAYNOR and JENNIFER RANKIN
Athens June 30 – Greece was left alone, insolvent and almost bankrupt after five years of €240bn (£170bn) in European bailouts dried up and the country became the first in the EU to default on its creditors.
The long-running debt debacle left Greece on the brink of financial collapse, worsening recent years of wrenching austerity, and represented a historic blow to a Europe committed to the irreversibility of its 16-year-old single currency.
After stunning fellow EU leaders last Saturday by calling the referendum, Tsipras delivered his last-minute bombshell by writing to eurozone leaders demanding a new, separate two-year bailout hours before the current arrangements lapsed.
During a day of gambles, demands and standoffs , Tsipras’s aides remained in telephone contact with commission officials for most of Tuesday before the Greek leader delivered his final move.
He asked for bridging loans to get him through the IMF non-payment problem and for a new two-year programme covering almost €29bn in debt servicing costs as well as debt relief measures.
Any such arrangement would come with tight strings attached. Tsipras has already rejected the creditors’ terms. If he wins his no vote, the Germans and others believe he has burnt his boats and bid farewell to the euro. If he loses to a large yes vote, however, eurozone leaders would be keen to strike a new deal but not with Tsipras, whom they do not trust to deliver.
A new rescue package would take time to negotiate with no guarantees of a successful conclusion. An agreement on more loans for Greece would need to pass through several eurozone parliaments, including the Bundestag in Berlin where it would get a rough ride.
Since the weekend eurozone leaders desperate to avoid the blame for the departure of the first country from the currency have been declaring that the door remains open to more talks. Tsipras’s gambit on Tuesday tested the credibility of that pledge. But it appeared that it came too late. Read more
The Guardian
2015-30-2015
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IMF: austerity measures would still leave Greece with unsustainable debt
BY NILS ALBERTO NARDELLI
London, June 30 – Secret documents show creditors’ baseline estimate puts debt at 118% of GDP in 2030, even if it signs up to all tax and spending reforms demanded by troika.
Greece would face an unsustainable level of debt by 2030 even if it signs up to the full package of tax and spending reforms demanded of it, according to unpublished documents compiled by its three main creditors.
In the creditors own words: “It is clear that the policy slippages and uncertainties of the last months have made the achievement of the 2012 targets impossible under any scenario”.
But despite the lenders’ admission that Greece cannot thrive without debt relief the documents provide no clarity about what such a package might look like, nor does it provide any detail of a third bailout programme despite assuming one would exist. They promise only a more detailed debt sustainability analysis in due course. Read more
The Guardian
2015-06-30
Rugby World Cup 2015: England can beat New Zealand at their own game
England’s tough training regimen will pay dividends at Rugby World Cup
On the hottest day of the year, there was no let-up in preparations during the second week of conditioning work at England’s Pennyhill Park training base, with Rowntree disclosing that the players faced “horrible” sessions in a bid to get them “as fit as they have ever been”, so as to hit their target of around 40 minutes’ ball-in-play time in a match. Read more
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