BREAKING NEWS

Merkel to visit Greece as money running out

By REUTERS

OCTOBER 6, 2012 00:27

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will make her first visit to Greece next week since the euro zone debt crisis erupted, in a show of support for Athens after it said it would run out of money at the end of November without fresh international aid.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras hailed the trip as a positive development at a time when his country is locked in negotiations with euro zone and IMF creditors who are holding back some 31.5 billion euros ($41 billion) in urgently needed loans.

"The key is liquidity. That is why the next credit tranche is so important for us," Samaras told the German business daily Handelsblatt. Asked how long Greece could manage without it, he said: "Until the end of November. Then the coffers are empty."

A German government spokesman said Merkel would travel to Athens on Tuesday for her first visit since the crisis began in late 2009, when a previous government revealed that Greece had hugely understated its public deficit.

The visit appears to signal that Europe's most powerful leader has decided it is essential to keep Greece in the single currency area despite its repeated failure to meet fiscal targets and economic reform commitments under two bailout program.

The IDF is about to take over the Palestinian side of Rafah Crossing

By MAARIV

05/07/2024 01:45 AM

Qatar foreign ministry: Hamas response to truce proposal is 'positive'

By REUTERS

05/07/2024 01:19 AM

US believes Israel's Rafah strikes do not represent a major operation

By REUTERS

05/07/2024 01:04 AM

UK military personnel's data accessed in hack, BBC reports

By REUTERS

05/07/2024 12:47 AM