Less than 24 hours had passed on Friday afternoon before finance ministry sources – replacing a “non paper” circulated by the prime minister’s office a day earlier – said an upcoming bailout loan tranche would reach 6.7 billion euros.
A day earlier a hastily issued unofficial statement said an upcoming loan tranche would not exceed 4.5 billion euros, while dismissing same-day press reports pointing to the greater sum. The loan tranche, of course, is dependent on the pending conclusion of the third review of the ongoing bailout.
The difference between Thursday’s “non paper” and Friday’s “sources” was, by all accounts, the addition of a “cash buffer” reaching 1.9 billion euros, along with the previously cited 3.3 billion euros for servicing debt maturities between February and June 2018, as well as 1.5 billion to cover the state’s arrears to the private sector.
