Jeroen Dijsselbloem (pictured), the head of the Eurogroup, told reporters on Monday evening after the body's meeting that the government in Athens needs to achieve an agreement with creditors by Friday, or by the beginning of the next week at the latest, to be able to draw a 2 billion tranche from its bailout package. Otherwise, Greece was praised for its commitment, and European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, responsible for economic and financial affairs, said the conditions are already met with 80%.
The monetary union's officials said the country's banks may need less recapitalisation than the 86 billion that was planned, and that the government still needs to tackle reforms in bank management and household insolvency. In a brief encounter with journalists, Dijsselbloem said bad loans, governance and recapitalisation are entangled.
The euro lost 0.28% to £0.71179, while it added 0.14% against the dollar, to 1.0759 (both 8:24 p.m. CET