Driving Greece to the brink

The eurozone's finance ministers still aren't happy with Greece. After today's conference call they welcomed “progress” made by the government in Athens, but little else.

They have made it clear for at least a year now that they want to extract as much as possible from Greece before considering the disbursal of any more cash.

The jubilance of yesterday's statement from Greece's prime minister, Antonis Samaras, about reaching a deal with the country's international lenders, was punctured by the finance ministers, who today swatted away any notion that a complete deal has been done.

Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, said there were still many unanswered questions and warned that there was still much to do.

Greece is desperate for the €31.5 billion bail-out loan otherwise it will run out of money in mid-November.

Today's final statement from the eurozone finance ministers takes a harder line on the likelihood that they will agree to disburse the money at their next meeting, on 12 November, than was previously envisioned. 

That meeting is now shaping up to be a real battle; not between Greece and the rest but between the eurozone hardliners, led by Germany, and the eurozone's softer south over how much further to drive Greece to the brink.