Greece speeding up talks for debt deal to receive bailout

The euro is being buoyed by optimism that Greece could reach a debt deal with its lenders by Sunday. It appears that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is willing to speed up things as talks are expected to continue through the May Day holiday weekend until Sunday.

Negotiations began on Thursday in Brussels as an enlarged team of Greek negotiators met with its EU and IMF lenders on a cash-for-reforms package.

Greece wants an interim deal by next week, hoping that will allow the ECB to ease liquidity restrictions before a 750 million euro payment to the IMF falls due on May 12. Athens has suggested it will struggle to pay the installment.

Greece is in need for bailout funds otherwise it will go bankrupt. The Greek government was willing to sell a majority stake in its two biggest ports and compromise on value-added tax rates and some pension reforms, in the clearest signal yet that it is ready to back down for a deal. So far Athens refused to give ground on so-called “red lines” – pensions, labour reform and state asset sales – that are core to his leftist party’s agenda.

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