German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Greece has made progress in implementing reforms and the next bailout tranche will be released soon.
Schaeuble gave an interview to the Funke media group newspapers that was published on Sunday. He is quoted saying that, “If the Greek government upholds all the agreements, European finance ministers could complete the review on May 22 and then soon after that release the next tranche.”
Greece and creditors reached an initial agreement at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on April 21 to set up the disbursement of 7 billion euros in aid. However, the finance ministers will not release the tranche until the bailout program evaluation is completed.
“The longer it takes, the more uncertainty will be in the financial markets and economy,” Schaeuble said.
Asked why he was optimistic the aid could soon be released, Schaeuble said, “because we negotiated in a very determined fashion and the Greek government said it would adjust the pensions more strongly to the economic situation. That’s not easy – I know that. And it wants to improve the tax collection system so that tax revenues will rise again from 2020.”
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