[Economics] Athens may run out of money?

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Greek and German leaders meet amid fears Athens may run out of money
Source: BBC Business

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have struck conciliatory tones at their Berlin summit, but remained vague on how to prevent Athens from running out of money.

Mrs Merkel said she wanted to see the Greek economy grow.

Mr Tsipras said it was better to talk with each other than about each other.

Both countries have been at odds over Greece's efforts to renegotiate the terms of its international bailout.

"We want Greece to be strong economically, we want Greece to grow and above all we want Greece to to overcome its high unemployment," the German chancellor said at a press conference mid-way through talks, which are due to continue over a working dinner.

She said both countries approached the talks as partners in the EU as well as Nato, facing the same geopolitical challenges. "We both have a vested interest in building cooperation based on trust."

As one of 19 eurozone countries Germany was in no position to decide whether Greece's reform programme was appropriate or not, she said. An institutional framework to assess this was in place, she added.

Mr Tsipras noted that it was almost five years since the start of the Greek bailout, which required massive fiscal adjustments in his country. "It has not been a success story," he said citing a 25% loss in GDP and 60% youth unemployment.

Greek proposals so far

-A district of Athens on Monday
-Combat tax evasion
-Tackle corruption
-Commit not to roll back privatisations already introduced, but to review those not yet implemented
-Introduce collective bargaining, stopping short of raising the minimum wage immediately
-Tackle Greece's "humanitarian crisis" with housing guarantees and free medical care for the uninsured unemployed, with no overall public spending increase
-Reform public sector wages to avoid further wage cuts, without increasing overall wage bill
-Achieve pensions savings by consolidating funds and eliminating incentives for early retirement - not cutting payments
-Reduce the number of ministries from 16 to 10, cutting special advisers and fringe benefits for officials