With a new bailout programme on the horizon Meg Lundsager argues that yet more IMF loans for Greece would be a stopgap measure and would delay reforms that Athens needs to make

Despite a slowing Chinese economy, decelerating inflation, and a stronger euro, ECB president Mario Draghi has said he will do more to support eurozone growth only “if necessary”. 

Grexit no longer represents the potential catastrophe that it once did. After all, the main short-term cost has already materialised, writes Daniel Gros.

That we are in election mode is as obvious as the proverbial nose on your face. 

Greece’s bailout deal is in line with previous bailouts, only worse. It will lead to further deterioration of the Greek economy and debt, writes Pat Cradock

“If you break it, you own it,” former US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned President George W Bush before his invasion of Iraq.

Greece’s international creditors yesterday signalled that they were ready to compromise to avert a default even as Athens warned it might skip an IMF loan repayment due tomorrow.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said yesterday the Greek government’s optimism about clinching a cash-for-reforms deal with its lenders within days was not backed up by negotiations and he could not rule out Greece becoming insolvent.

Greece has been cast as Europe’s bad boy, with other states happy to deliver a kicking, but in fact it fulfilled many of its troika commitments, writes Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill

Last Tuesday, Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis opted for some downtime, taking himself off to the theatre. The play he opted for was Happy Days by none other than Samuel Beckett. 

YESTERDAY’S assertion by Ashoka Mody, the former IMF chief of mission to Ireland, that Enda Kenny’s Government “blew” an opportunity to get a deal on debt write-down and a “slower pace of austerity” from the troika when it took office four years ago, will hardly enhance the reputation of the Coalition.

The ECB’s bond-buying decision risks deterring eurozone governments from taking steps to restore their countries’ competitiveness, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has said.

Germany and Britain will seek other countries’ backing for a deal to ensure that tax breaks on profits generated from patented research apply only in the country where the research and innovation takes place.

Finance ministers and tax chiefs from 51 countries signed an agreement yesterday to automatically swap tax information, which Germany’s finance minister said heralded the end of tax evasion via secret bank accounts.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Germany’s response to a "clear weakening" of the economy would be a shift in public spending toward investments and away from government consumption.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble says he is working with his French counterpart on ways to create a market for asset-backed securities that is strong enough not to rely on the ECB as the main buyer.

To German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, the European Central Bank is at the end of the road.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble said there is no rolling back the reform course in the EU and that resorting to any form of debt-sharing would lead to Europe’s demise.

Ireland’s clean exit from the bailout was hailed in the EU as a great success, but the troika will continue to monitor the country’s economy and the ongoing reforms.

THE vaunted declaration by Taoiseach Enda Kenny that Ireland will exit the bailout without a precautionary credit line, though welcome, is an exaggerated half-truth aimed at building market confidence ahead of the Dec 15 deadline.

Germany’s Social Democrats want to strip euro policymaking out of the finance ministry in chancellor Angela Merkel’s third term, according to three people familiar with the party’s negotiating strategy.

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi put his weight behind a EU banking union in a trip to Berlin yesterday, two days after Germany led an attack on a proposal to centralise control of failing lenders.

Greece’s efforts to modernise the economy with support from Germany are beginning to pay off at a local level two years after joint projects were first begun, according to Angela Merkel’s special envoy to the country.

The European Central Bank joined Germany yesterday in playing down talk of a third bailout package for Greece, but reaffirmed the eurozone would help the country trim debt as long as it stuck to its latest aid programme.

Voters may be asked next year to give TDs sweeping powers to apportion blame for the banking crisis in a rerun of the failed Oireachtas inquiries referendum.

Germany’s top court probably won’t intervene in the ECB’s plan to buy bonds of crisis-torn countries, in line with previous cases involving the country’s integration with the EU.

The Cypriot crisis brought two stark facts into relief as the EU, ECB, and IMF last night battled to conclude a deal that met all its demands for a €10bn bailout that looks increasingly doomed.

Wolfgang Schäuble is Europe’s most experienced frontline political leader and little happens in the EU without his say so. His championing of the newly agreed banking union puts his reputation on the line, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

The IMF and EU appear to have ironed out their differences over Greece’s bailout and releasing the long-delayed latest instalment to Athens.

Greece’s euro partners won’t be able to release the country’s next batch of bailout cash at a meeting next week, even though the Greek parliament narrowly backed more unpopular austerity measures.

Hopes of a deal on Ireland’s bank debt slipped further away as Germany’s finance minister signalled there would be no reworking of such debt at a European level until 2014.

Opposition parties have today criticised the lack any firm commitments said at the meeting between Ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble.

Ireland will not need a second bailout, Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schauble has declared.

Countries should not sacrifice growth for the sake of austerity, the head of the International Monetary Fund told global financial leaders today.

Ireland’s hopes of agreeing a deal on the lowering of its bank debt burden by the end of October could be an unrealistic target, according to one leading economist.

The document eurozone members are hoping will save the euro promises to be long on big plans and short on immediate measures that would halt the continuing crisis now threatening the global economy.

A spokesman for the German finance minister has played down hopes of a deal on Ireland's bank debt.

Final decisions on the Greek bailout should be taken on Monday after Greece delivered on further cuts and political assurances at a special teleconference between eurozone finance ministers last night.

THE Government could accept a ban on Ireland and other eurozone countries accessing the EU’s aid fund if they do not adopt the new treaty, according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

EUROPE should press ahead with a tax on financial transactions even without international consensus, the German and French finance ministers said in a letter sent to the European Commission yesterday.

EFFORTS to ensure Ireland is not forced to increase its corporation tax rate took a significant step forward at the weekend.

THERE is considerable confusion about the “deal” reached by European finance ministers to bail out the Greek economy.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has gained the support of German Minister of the Interior Dr Wolfgang Schauble for his controversial 6+5 plan to increase the number of home-based players in European football.

EUROPE’S foreign ministers will discuss the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty when they meet in Luxembourg today as some countries suggest the union should move ahead without Ireland.