Talking-Tough Troika Back in Athens

ATHENS ? Greece's international lenders returned on Nov. 5 to resume negotiations over long-stalled progress on key reforms before signing off on the next installment of one billion euros ($1.34 billion) as part of a second bailout of $173 billion. Envoys from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) say that the government needs to raise revenues or make enough cuts to fill a hole of as much as 2.9 billion euros ($3.9 billion) in the 2014 budget, although the government said only 500 million euros ($674 million) is needed. Samaras is keen to avoid imposing any more of the austerity measures that have roiled society and led to protests and strikes and said the Troika pressure was a ?punitive approach.?

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