{"id":135686,"date":"2015-07-18T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T08:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=135686"},"modified":"2015-07-18T07:01:30","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T07:01:30","slug":"greece-debt-crisis-reforms-going-to-fail-varoufakis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=135686","title":{"rendered":"Greece debt crisis: Reforms ‘going to fail’ – Varoufakis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Greek finance minster has said his country’s economic reforms are “going to fail”, just as formal talks on a huge bailout are set to begin.<\/p>\n

In a BBC interview, Yanis Varoufakis said Greece was subject to a programme that will “go down in history as the greatest disaster of macroeconomic management ever”.<\/p>\n

The German parliament approved the opening of negotiations on Friday.<\/p>\n

The bailout could total \u20ac86bn (\u00a360bn) in exchange for austerity measures.<\/p>\n

In a damning assessment, Mr Varoufakis said: “This programme is going to fail whoever undertakes its implementation.”<\/p>\n

Asked how long that would take, he replied: “It has failed already.”<\/p>\n

Mr Varoufakis resigned earlier this month, in what was widely seen as a conciliatory gesture towards the eurozone finance ministers he had frequently clashed with.<\/p>\n

He said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who has admitted that he does not believe in the bailout, had little option but to sign.<\/p>\n

“We were given a choice between being executed and capitulating. And he decided that capitulation was the ultimate strategy.”<\/p>\n

\"null\"
The German parliament has approved opening formal negotiations on the bailout<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"null\"
It comes after reforms were passed by the Greek parliament<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Tsipras has announced a cabinet reshuffle, sacking several ministers who voted against the reforms in parliament this week.<\/p>\n

Energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, one of the hardline rebels, was among those replaced.<\/p>\n

But Mr Tsipras opted not to bring in technocrats or opposition politicians as replacements.<\/p>\n

As a result, says the BBC’s Mark Lobel in Athens, Mr Tsipras will preside over ministers who, like himself, harbour serious doubts about the reform programme.<\/p>\n

Greece must pass further reforms on Wednesday next week to secure the bailout.<\/p>\n

Germany was the last of the eurozone countries needing parliamentary approval to begin the talks, with Greece voting to accept hard-hitting austerity measures earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

But the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem has warned that the process will not be easy, saying he expected the negotiations to take four weeks.<\/p>\n

Some Greek banks could reopen on Monday following weeks of closures, after the European Central Bank (ECB) raised the level of emergency funding available.<\/p>\n

\"null\"
Some Greek banks could open on Monday, although capital controls will remain in place<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Separately, the European Council approved the \u20ac7bn bridging loan for Greece from an EU-wide emergency fund. The loan was approved in principle by eurozone ministers on Thursday and now has the go-ahead from all non-euro states.<\/p>\n

It means Greece will now be able to repay debts to two of its creditors, the ECB and International Monetary Fund (IMF), due on Monday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former Greek finance minster has said his country’s economic reforms are “going to fail”, just as formal talks on a huge bailout are set to begin. In a BBC interview, Yanis Varoufakis said Greece was subject to a programme that will “go down in history as the greatest disaster of macroeconomic management ever”. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":135687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-135686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/135687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}