While attention in Greece is locked squarely on the shutdown of the national broadcaster ERT and the crisis it has provoked with the coalition government, the country’s international lenders privately approved release of a pending loan installment of 3.3 billion euros ($4.39 billion).
The okay came after envoys of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) came to Athens to check the books and progress on reforms demanded in return for the rescue monies.
The approval was given during a meeting of Eurozone officials in Rome and ahead of another on June 15 during which Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras is scheduled to again ask for permission to let Greece lower the Value Added Tax of 23 percent – a hike which Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had agreed to earlier – to be lowered now to 13 percent for restaurants to help them during the busy summer tourist season. The Troika had rejected the idea.
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