Greece’s week before March 9 meeting of euro finance ministers
Greece faces another week of hurdles before the March 9 meeting of euro-region finance ministers in Brussels, where they will evaluate the government’s list of proposed measures aimed at keeping aid flowing.
* March 4: Greece to auction 875 million euros ($976 million) of 26-Week Treasury Bills. The European Central Bank requested that Greek banks don’t increase their T-bill exposure and holdings at the moment. Greek banks can roll over outstanding balances and will most likely do so, Eurobank Chief Executive Officer Fokion Karavias said in Bloomberg TV interview March 2.
* March 5: The ECB’s Governing Council holds a monetary policy meeting in Cyprus. It will discuss the situation of Greek banks, which rely on about 100 billion euros of ECB financing, most of it extended through the ELA emergency lifeline, to stay afloat. It’s unlikely the ECB will restore a waiver allowing for the use of junk-rated Greek assets as eligible collateral for access to its normal financing operations. ECB President Mario Draghi is expected to keep discussion at political level, Nomura said in a note dated Feb. 27.
* March 6: Greece will make a payment of about 303 million euros to the International Monetary Fund. About 1.2 billion euros of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) will also be repayed to the IMF in March, making a total of about 1.5 billion euros. For the exact dates, see the IMF’s website.
* March 9: Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said he will present to his euro-area counterparts a list of six reforms. The available tranche for Greece from the EFSF and 2014 profit from the SMP can only be disbursed after positive judgment of the institutions based on a review and final approval of the group of euro region finance ministers, Chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on March 2.
[Bloomberg]
