September 19, 2011
Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government will hold another call with its main creditors tomorrow after a “productive” round of talks aimed at staving off default.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos held “substantive” discussions with European Union and International Monetary Fund officials about securing a sixth instalment of rescue funds, the Athens-based finance ministry said in an e-mailed statement after a teleconference tonight. A second call will be held tomorrow evening. U.S. stocks pared losses after the statement.
As Papandreou fights investor doubts and domestic opposition, European leaders are squabbling over the terms of the July agreement and the prospect that they will be forced to channel more money to keep Greece in the currency union. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in an interview today that Europe will eventually adopt some of the same measures the U.S. took after the 2008 financial crisis.
“We can’t move along without real implementation of fiscal reforms and we are late,” Venizelos said in Athens earlier today. “We must reach the end of December with a cash balance result that’s within fiscal targets.”
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index pared an earlier loss of 2.3 percent to close 1 percent lower at 1204.09 points. While Greece says it has enough cash to cover its needs for October, any disbursement of new funds would likely only see it through to the end of the year.
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