Greece won’t accept “illogical” demands from lenders, PM says
Greece's prolonged bailout review will be completed positively, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said today, but he added Athens will not accept "illogical" demands from lenders.
Speaking to his leftist Syriza party, Tsipras said the review would be completed "without concessions in matters of principle" and warned all sides to "be more careful towards a country that has been pillaged and people who have made, and are continuing to make, so many sacrifices in the name of Europe", according to Reuters' reports.
Yesterday, the country made progress in its talks with lenders, moving closer to a deal to secure new loan disbursements and save the country from default. That would mean another set of funds would be released from it latest 86bn euro bailout, helping it make a major 7.2bn euro debt repayment this summer.
Read more: Is the Greek debt crisis about to heat up again?
Representatives of Greece's lenders are expected to return to Athens this week to report on whether the country has complied with a second round of reforms agreed under its third and current bailout.
"We are ready to discuss anything within the framework of the [bailout] agreement and within reason, but not things beyond the framework of the agreement and beyond reason," Tsipras said. "We will not discuss demands which are not backed up by logic and by numbers," he said.
Tsipras said the IMF was coming up with "new demands for Greece; absurd, imaginary unreal, it doesn't matter, as long as it is made to look like Greece is to blame … for the already agreed decision of the Fund to not finance the third Greek bailout."
Earlier this week, yields on two-year Greek debt jumped to almost 9.7 per cent, the highest since last summer, after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) admitted its executive board was divided over the issue of the country's bailout.