Greek Finance Minister Georges Papaconstantinou voiced confidence today that the debt-hit country will receive the next €15 billion tranche of a three-year EU-IMF emergency loan.
Greece has so far received €38 billion from the total €110 billion bail-out agreed last May by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
A group of EU, IMF and European Central Bank experts, known in Greece as the 'troika', are due in Athens on February 7 to look at the books and and see how required reforms are progressing before giving the green light to the next loan payment.
'The evaluation concerns the country's obligations for 2010, the most important of which have been complied with, there the next tranche is not in danger,' Papaconstantinou said. He added that the measures already taken to reduce the public deficit would be backed up by increased efforts against tax evasion.
He also promised to go after 'offshore companies and foreign bank accounts, behind which hide the underground economy'.
Greece's bail-out spurred the creation of a €750 billion emergency rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, which has since been tapped by Ireland.
The finance minister's comments came days after European Union officials acknowledged that the EU is working up plans for a revamped euro zone crisis fund that could help Greece wipe away part of its debt mountain, an albatross of some €300 billion.
Papaconstantinou confirmed that the idea of Greece buying back part of its debt through buying back bonds that have lost value on secondary markets was 'on the table'.
