Greece hopes eurozone ministers will recognize its fiscal progress

PanARMENIAN.Net - Greek politicians say they are hopeful that eurozone ministers will recognize the fiscal progress that the country has made, BBC News reports.

Eurozone finance ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday, May 11, to continue negotiations on a deal to release a portion of billions of bailout funds.

Greek ministers says they will honor a payment of €750mln ($834mln) to the IMF due on Tuesday. No breakthrough is expected at Monday's talks, with many issues unresolved.

Greece's left-wing government has said it will not break anti-austerity electoral promises, something that has put the country at odds with European creditors.

Greece has until June to agree a new reform deal with its creditors.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is reported to have told his cabinet that Europe needs to acknowledge the economic reforms that Greece has made. "We want a clear confirmation of the progress that has been made," he told a meeting on Sunday, Greece's Ana state news agency reported.

Eurozone ministers are not hopeful of a deal being struck.

"We have made progress, but we are not very close to an agreement," Eurogroup chair Jeroen Dijsselbloem told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "It will surely not be reached at the Eurogroup meeting on Monday," he said.

Last week Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told the BBC that he did not expect a deal to be agreed on Monday but said agreement could be reached "within the next couple of weeks or so".

Varoufakis also accused the eurozone of dragging its feet over agreeing a deal. "Europe works in glacial ways, and eventually does the right thing after it has tried all alternatives."

Greece did meet last Wednesday's deadline to pay €200mln in interest to the IMF.