A man sells balloons on a shopping street in downtown Athens. Eurozone finance ministers will discuss preparations for Greek reforms envisaged by the third bailout, worth €86bn ($96.8bn), at an informal meeting in Luxembourg tomorrow.

Reuters/Brussels

International creditors expect the first review of Greek reforms under the latest bailout to start in October, bringing changes to a memorandum of understanding signed with Athens and paving the way for debt rescheduling talks, eurozone officials said.
Eurozone finance ministers will discuss preparations for Greek reforms envisaged by the third bailout, worth €86bn ($96.8bn), at an informal meeting in Luxembourg tomorrow. No implementation review is possible before Greece’s September 20 parliamentary elections.
“There are elections in Greece. We have to wait for the results,” Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, told Reuters in an interview.
“The next step is a review in October. After the review we will have to discuss the restructuring of the debt, because there is consensus that debt is too high. How to restructure it? There are diverging views,” Gramegna said.
He made clear that talks about debt restructuring would exclude the possibility of a write-off on the principal lent by eurozone governments to Greece under the previous two bailouts — the total now stands at €196.8bn since 2010.
“You can achieve payment relief by extending the grace period, or delaying payments ... and avoid a nominal haircut,” he said.
The review itself, however, may take some time, as it is likely to involve negotiations with the new Greek government that will emerge after the elections. Changes may be necessary as a result of an evolving economic situation.
“The first review is an issue where you negotiate,” an EU official involved in the preparations for the meeting of the eurozone ministers said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The changes would be necessary because of changing economic data and forecasts and the results of an asset quality review of Greek banks that the European Central Bank will conduct to establish the sector’s recapitalisation needs.
“If you look at the development of Memorandum of Understanding in the first programme, in the second programme — it is a living thing, which changes in its content as a consequence of each and every review,” the official said.
“The same will hold true this time, and will reflect the interactions of the Greek authorities with the institutions representing the creditors,” he said.
He said the debt restructuring discussion after the first review would focus on which economic measure had more relevance for Greece — the debt to gross domestic product ratio, or the ratio of GDP to debt servicing costs.
The choice of the latter would mean that an extension of maturities of eurozone loans and additional grace periods for repayments would be enough to significantly lower the Net Present Value of Greek debt, making debt servicing much easier.
“Technically it is no mystery. Politically, it is not so easy,” the official said.

Athens lifts ban on re-export of medicines
Greece has lifted a ban on the re-export of medicines, which had been imposed for certain drugs in July at the height of concerns about possible shortages that risked leading to a humanitarian crisis.
The National Medicines Agency said the temporary block on wholesalers buying drugs in Greece and selling them at higher prices elsewhere in Europe had been ended.
Such exports, known as parallel trade, are permitted under European Union free trade rules but Greece imposed an exceptional ban on the export of 25 types of drugs two months ago following warnings of possible serious shortages.
Officials said at the time that “abuses” by some market players had been discovered, after pharmacists complained of difficulties in securing supplies.
Nearly all Greek medicine is imported, heightening fears that life-saving drugs might run out as Greece teetered on the brink of an exit from the eurozone earlier this year.
Before the temporary ban, drug makers and wholesalers had traded blame about who was responsible for a worsening supply situation at pharmacies and hospitals.
In a statement published on its website, dated September 8, the medicines agency said it would continue to the monitor the situation and could take further action if a supply problem re-occurred.
It said both drug makers and wholesalers had an obligation to “ensure appropriate and continued supplies to pharmacies and persons authorised to supply medicinal products to meet the needs of patients who are in Greece”.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers face large unpaid bills in Greece but have promised to keep supply lines open. Reuters reported in May that companies were owed more than $1.2bn by Greek hospitals and the state-run health insurer, after not being paid since December.
The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations has argued for a curb on re-exports to prevent medicines being sucked out of the country.
But the European Association of Euro Pharmaceutical Companies, representing firms involved in parallel trade, says this is a ploy by drug makers to exploit the Greek crisis for their own commercial purposes.