It’s almost the end of March and we are still talking about mini-summits and Eurogroup meetings as European policy makers attempt to reach a deal on Greece.
The degree to which the relationship between FinMins has soured is evident by the fact that it has been left to the leaders to try and reach an agreement. But the clock is ticking away and with it we are getting ever closer to the situation where Greece risks running out of funds.
The ECB is unwilling to lift the limit on t-bill issuance, leaving Greece to raid funds held by the welfare system and public companies.
Over the weekend Frankfurter Allgemeine reported that an assessment by the Troika suggests Greece has enough liquidity until April 8.
With two weeks to go a deal is still looking difficult, with Greece walking away from the meeting last week with a different interpretation to Merkel on what was agreed.
Tsipras will visit Berlin today and it will be interesting to see if the record is set straight and Germany reaffirms the need to stick to what was agreed on Feb 20.
What has become clear is that Greece is using up a lot of political capital and patience is running thin, and what we are talking about is still an extension of the previous bailout. Just think how much higher the Grexit risks will bet once discussions start over a third bailout and debt restructuring that involves an OSI (Official Sector Involvement).
