ATHENS: Greece’s European creditors refused, once again, to release the €7.2bn (£5.1bn) of bailout cash the country is owed, pushing Athens another step closer to a disastrous sovereign default.
As widely expected, eurozone finance ministers, meeting in the Latvian capital of Riga, concluded that the Greece Government had failed to produce a program of economic reforms that was enough to unlock the vital funding.
“A comprehensive deal is necessary before any disbursement can take place” said the Dutch finance minister and Eurogroup chair, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, in the wake of the meeting, which lasted little more an hour. “We are all aware that time is running out.”
However, the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis gave a more optimistic interpretation of the meeting. “We agreed that an agreement will be difficult but it will happen and it will happen quickly because that is the only option we have,” he told a news conference.
