Greek Debt Relief Deal Fails In Last Minute, As Germany, IMF Clash Again

Stop us if you’ve heard this story before.
Insolvent Greece, having last week voted itself into even more austerity in hopes of unlocking some of the money promised it by Brussels so it can then use it to repay debt maturities owed to the ECB (whether it will actually follow through with said austerity measures remains unclear, though most likely not), is dragged to the finish line of yet another Euro finance minister negotiating session with promises that this time a debt relief deal is virtually guaranteed, and then… it all falls apart.
That’s what again happened today, when Euro-area finance ministers gathered in Brussels with hopes, at least for the Greek delegation, to come home with a signed agreement, only to fail to break the impasse on debt relief for Greece, delaying the conclusion of the country’s bailout review and the disbursement of fresh loans needed to repay obligations in July.
‘The Eurogroup held an in-depth discussion on the sustainability of Greece’s public debt but did not reach an overall agreement,’ said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who presides over meetings with his euro-area counterparts, and who again failed to reach a solution after another hardline stance by his German colleague, Wolfgang Schauble, prevented any potential concessions. As a reminder, ever since the 3rd Greek bailout in the summer of 2015, rhe IMF and Germany have been at odds over Greece’s economic outlook and the amount of debt relief required to assure economic stability: it was the same debate, that prevented a deal from being inked on Monday.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on May 22, 2017.