Greece "humiliated" after Eurogroup fails to reach agreement on aid

Athens, NOV. 21 (dpa/GNA) - The failure by eurozone finance minister to reach a decision overnight on the release of Greece's next loan tranche prompted an outpouring of angry reaction from Athens on Wednesday, with the main opposition saying the country was being "humiliated."   "The government is doing all their favours and is being humiliated in return," said Dimitris Papadimoulis, from the radical left SYRIZA party.   SYRIZA, which has been ahead in opinion polls, has said that it would cancel the reforms and fiscal measures passed by Greece's three-party coalition earlier this month as part of the country's efforts to meet the terms of its bailout agreement with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).   In a show of increasing frustration, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said delays could not continue and called on the eurozone and the IMF to live up to their commitments.   "Greece did what it had to and what it had committed to," Samaras said in a statement ... our partners now have a duty to meet the responsibilities they have assumed."   The failure by the eurogroup to reach an agreement means that Athens has to wait to find out if the loan installments will be disbursed next month. The government has said it will run out of cash reserves towards the end of November.   "Greece has delivered on its side of the bargain, but eurozone politicians have so far failed to build a consensus," said Chris Turner, head of foreign exchange strategy at ING Bank.   "This does not augur well for discussions on banking and fiscal union to be discussed at the December 13th European Union summit," he said in a note to clients.   The president of the ministers' eurogroup panel, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he remained confident that the aid would soon flow, blaming the delay on the need to carry out "precise calculations" and the wish by some ministers to consult with national leaders.   He said he intended for the ministers to resume their talks at noon on Monday. When asked about when Greece would finally receive the repeatedly delayed bailout tranche, he said: "I don't know when this will happen."   But he was quick to add that he is "massively interested in Greece getting its next tranche and I assume that it will be so."   However, therwe was only a muted reaction on financial markets, with the euro edging down 0.4 per cent to 1.2765 dollars and shares posting a modest decline in early trading Wednesday.   A major issue to be settled is how to bridge a 32.6-billion-euro (41.7-billion-dollar) gap in Greece's rescue package, which was created after the ministers last week agreed to give the country two extra years to get its finances back into shape.   A disagreement has also emerged between the IMF and the Europeans on whether Athens should have until 2020 or 2022 to cut its debt down to 120 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Juncker said the two sides were "narrowing our positions."   Overall, ministers are also trying to determine how best to get a handle on Greece's debt, which is now expected to balloon to almost 190 per cent of GDP next year. GNA       ... Read Full Story