Speaking to a Dutch TV program Mr Dijsselbloem said, “How much money Greece will need and the level of the new assistance will be determined after the summer.”
It is not the first time that Dijsselbloem has raised the prospect of additional loan programs for Greece. However coming shortly after the European elections and Mr Schauble’s similar statements – who put the potential new loan to Greece on the order of about 10 billion euros – Dijsselbloem’s comment is being seen in Greece as another nail of the government’s pre-election rhetoric which spoke of ‘an exit from the Memoranda’.
Mr Dijsselbloem said that the third loan would be necessary given that Greece still had an enormous public debt saying, “if the country has to service it by itself it would have to pay an estimated interest on the order of 6-7%, which would be almost impossible.”
In separate interview with CNBC Dijsselbloem also talked of the need for continued reforms in Greece when talking about the potential for debt sustainability saying, “we'll do that calculation on what that debt sustainability looks like, it very much depends on growth, potential in Greece which is there but has to be opened up by further reforms.”
Mr Dijsselbloem did note some improvements in Greece – in particular the positive projections for the tourism sector, implying that this was part of a general pattern of an improving competitiveness that had been brought about due to the troika mandated economic reforms.
However while it is true that a record 19 million tourists are expected this year in Greece, it would appear that this has much less to do with the troika’s reforms than with other factors such as the instability in Egypt and Turkey. According to the Tourism Competitiveness Ranking produced by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, Greece actually slipped in the rankings between 2011 and 2013.