Greece, creditors 'close' to deal on third bailout

Greece and its creditors were to continue talks on Monday after marathon discussions late into the night, with both sides indicating that the terms of a third bailout were close to being finalised.The finance and economy ministers, Euclid Tsakalotos and Giorgos Stathakis, were back at the negotiating table with the ECB, the International Monetary Fund and the European Stability Mechanism at 2:00 pm (1100 GMT) on Sunday and were still talking eight hours later.

They are finalising the draft of a crucial new bailout of up to 86 billion euros ($94 billion) in exchange for further reforms before the debt-ridden country must repay 3.4 billion euros to the European Central Bank on August 20. Talks were going well and could be wrapped up tomorrow, an EU source told AFP, adding that discussions had narrowed down the list of priority actions that Athens must commit to. “We need to have an agreement here on Tuesday and all the parties are working towards it,” the source added.

A speedy accord would allow the bailout to kick in before the August 20 debt repayment deadline. Stathakis said ahead of Saturday's negotiations that the talks were ‘in the final stretch’.Pro-Government newspaper Avgi on Sunday said: “All signs are pointing to an agreement.” It added that Parliament could vote on the accord this week, or that eurozone finance ministers could approve it first on Friday, after which Parliament would vote on it on August 18. Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Sunday reported that the Greek Government would likely approve a 27-page draft memorandum of reform commitments this weekend to allow the new bailout to go through before August 20. An agreement will have to be reached by August 17 to prevent Greece from having to ask for a bridging loan to avoid another loan default.