Further humiliation awaits Athens on bailout terms

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.

However, further humiliations appear to be in store for Athens as a statement following the meeting hinted that the €130bn would be put into an escrow account, with creditors having priority over payments to keep state services running. A statement issued after the near four-hour conversation read: “Further considerations are necessary regarding the specific mechanisms to strengthen the surveillance of programme implementation and to ensure that priority is given to debt servicing.”

The troika finalised and presented its analysis on the sustainability of Greece’s public debt, which they need to show it is possible to reduce it from 160% to 120% by 2020 to be in line with IMF rules for lending.