Debt inspectors back in Greece

Greece’s international debt inspectors are due back in Athens today to decide whether to recommend the debt-laden nation receives the vital next instalment of bail-out loans.

Officials from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission, known as the troika, suspended their review earlier this month amid dissatisfaction over missed fiscal targets and delays in implementation of reforms the country must make to qualify for its bail-out loans.

Hundreds of civil servants took over several ministries, including the Finance Ministry where Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was to meet the officials later in the day.

Workers who took over the Interior Ministry building hung a giant black banner from the balconies and draped the ministry’s gate with a Greek flag emblazoned with a “for sale” sign.

Greece has been reliant since May last year on regular payouts of loans from a €110bn bail-out from other eurozone countries and the IMF.

It was granted a second, €109bn package in July, though the details of that deal remain to be worked out.

The troika had originally been expected to approve Greece’s next batch of loans, worth €8bn, in early September.

Greece has said that without the loans, it has enough funds to see it through mid-October, after which it runs out of cash and will be unable to pay salaries and pensions.

The government announced a series of extra austerity measures after the troika left, including pension cuts, extra taxes and the suspension of 30,000 civil servants on partial pay by the end of the year.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is holding a Cabinet meeting today morning to discuss the reforms.

Venizelos will meet the troika after that meeting.