The February 21 agreement on a second bailout to Greece wasn’t final. Greece was requested to do some “prior actionsâ€, a long list of 38 changes.
The Greek parliament has approved the last measures (according to them) in the last moment. Will this please the European Union?
Greece was required to complete the 38 steps until the end of February. They were almost on time this time. Early on March 1st, the parliament passed changes to the health sector: longer opening hours of pharmacies and a limitation on spending on drugs.
Greece spends 10% of its GDP on health, and doesn’t save enough money on drugs. It will now spend more money on generic drugs. These issues were eyed by the troika.
With this final approval, Greece expects to receive the green light for the bailout. Results of the bond swap are still awaited.
The European Commission already approved the next tranche for Ireland. This was widely expected.
And now, Greece awaits the verdict. The critical Eurogroup meeting begins in Brussels at 13:00 GMT. It will take for the news to come out. A rejection isn’t likely, but an outright approval can be doubted. The EU is good at leg dragging.
EUR/USD is stable at around 1.3320, down after Bernanke’s blow. European banks filled their coffers with fresh cash from the ECB in the second LTRO, which amounted to 529.5 billion euros.
Will the EU let Greece go, now that banks are ready?
