WITH austerity the worst word to use in Greece, at least there seems a little light at the end of the financial tunnel, after a lengthy meeting this week.
Greece received a two-year extension to its fiscal adjustment programme, but no decision was made on the disbursement of an outstanding 31.5 tranche of an EU/IMF bailout loan at Monday's Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
"Together with the Greek adjustment program the Eurogroup will further discuss (Greece's) financing needs and debt sustainability at an extraordinary meeting that will be convened on 20 November," the ministers said in a joint statement that was read out by Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker at a press conference after the meeting, adding that a few more "prior actions" remained to be implemented by the Greek authorities by then.
The Eurogroup acknowledged the considerable efforts made by the Greek citizens and welcomed the resolve of the Greek authorities to put the programme back on track, particularly after parliament's adoption of a "substantial set of reforms (omnibus bill of austerity measures) as well as a convincing budget for 2013" on November 7 and 11 respectively, Juncker said, adding that "these have received a preliminary positive assessment" by the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Troika of Greece's international lenders.
He said that the ratification process for the disbursement of the next tranche by the eurozone national parliaments will begin shortly before November 20, after which the Eurogroup will convene again, possibly on November 26, either in person or by teleconference, to ascertain whether everything is in place for the final approval of the next loan tranche to Greece.
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