Greece’s lenders are insisting that the country remain subject to an economic bailout program, according to the financial newspaper Bloomberg, which has cited two anonymous officials. European financial support of Greece is set to expire at the end of 2014, although the IMF is scheduled to continue to disburse loan tranches in 2015. Mr. Samaras has suggested that the country may forgo these additional loans. That may help his coalition government stave off early elections in February, which will be triggered if Mr. Samaras cannot find at least 180 MPs to support the election of a new president of the republic. His government’s narrow majority currently stands at 154 in the 300 seat chamber. If early elections are held, the opposition party SYRIZA is projected to win, consistently polling at least 4 percentage points above New Democracy. However, according to the Bloomberg report, the troika remains unconvinced that the country can survive without outside support following today’s tabling of the 2015 draft budget in parliament. According to the budget, Greece will raise money on international debt markets through the issue of 7- and 10-year bonds and treasury bills. Greece returned to the markets in April with a successful bond issue after four years of being under economic surveillance due to its fiscal crisis. But according to Bloomberg, the troika continues to see the country’s condition as fragile. “Greece’s creditors would prefer to keep some form of credible backstop in case market conditions worsen,” the newspaper writes.
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