Greece bailout: European Union troika making 'progress'

Talks to avert a financial meltdown in Greece have made "good progress", the European Commission has announced.

There were protests in Athens at the weekend calling for a boycott of banks

Debt inspectors from the EC, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund will return to Athens next week for further negotiations.

This so-called troika of inspectors suspended a review of Greece's austerity programme, which was needed to approve further bailout money.

The troika and Greek finance ministers held a teleconference late on Tuesday.

After the teleconference, the EC said in a statement that a full troika mission "is now expected to come back to Athens early next week to resume the review, including policy discussions.

"Good progress was made" at Tuesday's talks, the statement said, "and technical discussions will continue in Athens over the coming days."

The suspension of the troika's full review of Greece's progress in meeting its budget reduction measures had unsettled the global financial markets for days.

The suspicion was that Greece was not making progress, jeopardising the release of an urgently-needed 8bn (£6.9bn)euros tranche of aid.

Greece has been under pressure to plug a budget hole of more than 2bn euros to meet the terms of a 110bn-euro bailout from the troika members.

The debt-laden country needs the rescue funds before it runs out of money to pay such things as public wages and pensions.

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