The news from Greece continues to portray storm clouds on the horizon
The noises still emanating from Greece that there's trouble within the Greek government are still coming thick and fast.
The latest from Greece is that there could be trouble due around April 7th and that threats might be issued that if the bailout review has not been concluded favourably by then, the Greek government may declare that it cannot repay its debts.
According to our sources, the rumours surrounding my story from 16th March are still circulating and gaining some additional traction.
This latest "smoke" has apparently been coming from unnamed Greek MEP's and government officials.
Greece is facing some substantial debt repayments in the next few months and these could be in the balance if there's trouble.
Here's what's due:
7th April €1.4bn
18th April €1bn
20th April €1.4bn
12th May €1.4bn
20th May €1.4bn
9th June €2bn
7th July €2bn
17/18th July $2.4bn (incl 300m to IMF)
20th July €3.9bn (incl 1.5bn to the ECB)
4th August €1bn
As I mentioned back in my story of the 16th, this is what we're being told, and it's being talked about in Greece, not made up by us. Although the details of that story that didn't happen, that hasn't meant it's the end of the story. Such was the reaction to the story that it went viral in Greece and even had the Greek government issuing a statement denying the story after Reuters picked it up too. Not only that, but Greek state TV also gave yours truly a grilling for running "fake news". I can't understand a word of it but they start their rant from 34 minutes in, and we get our mention around 35m05s. Apparently, ForexLive was picking on Greece because we, "didn't have success in crashing the euro on the American or Dutch elections", so chose Greece as the "weaker link" but failed to "manipulate and crash the stock markets" :-D
Why I would want to crash the euro when I've been long of it all year is obviously way over the heads of most state tv reporters but I digress ;-)
You've also got to question why the Greek government is going to such great lengths to rubbish a story from little old us? Remember the saying, "it's not real until it's been officially denied". The info received from both these stories is not being made up by me (I've got a reputation to uphold and more important things to do than make shit up) but are coming from people within Greece. The rumours are pretty well known within Greece too but obviously they are not coming out of Greece too freely. To that extent, the questions shouldn't be asked of ForexLive but of Greece itself.
So, for today's story I'll repeat word for word what I said in the story from the 16th, just so the Greek government knows our position clearly (again) ;-)
At this point we should treat this info purely as rumour until it's confirmed.
The belt is tightening on Greece again
Update 12.15GMT: To show our fairness in presenting all available information, our good and respected friend Yannis Koutsomitis @yannikouts has pointed out that the Greek central bank currently has a large buffer of around €12bn that the Greek government may be able access. Therefore the "can't pay" call may be a bit wide of the mark.
If you follow Greece at all then Yannis is someone worth adding to your follow list.
