scorecardGreece acted 'like a taxi driver and just kept asking for money'
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Greece acted 'like a taxi driver and just kept asking for money'

Greece acted 'like a taxi driver and just kept asking for money'
Finance2 min read

Reuters

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (front) and deputy minister for international economic relations Euclid Tsakalotos leave the Maximos Mansion after a meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (not pictured) in Athens April 3, 2015.

Eurozone officials are apparently rather upset with Greece's negotiation tactics.

In fact, they are so annoyed that they allegedly said that Greece acted "like a taxi driver" and just kept asking for cash, instead of outlining reform plans, in the latest round of bailout talks.

According to a report on Sunday by a German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS), Eurozone officials are "disappointed" by Greece's lack of economic reform plans and were "shocked" by the lack of progress the ruling Syriza party had made.

However, Greece's finance ministry hit back at report and issued a statement:

"When the readers of FAS read the minutes … the newspaper will have difficulty justifying its headline and the content of its article. Such reports undermine the negotiation and Europe."

Greece is struggling to negotiate a bailout extension that would unlock €7.2 billion ($7.73 billion) for the country and tide it over for a few months.

On April 9, it made its €460 million ($495.82 million) repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Although it managed to make this payment to the IMF, but there's no doubt that funds are running dry, and one of the other major bills due in the next few weeks will cause a default if those bailout funds do not appear.

The Euro Working Group, a meeting of deputy finance ministers, gave Athens six working days from Thursday last week, to present a convincing economic reform plan before eurozone finance ministers. On April 24, they will decide whether to unlock €7.2 billion of bailout funds.

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