24m ago22:25
After one day in Athens, Sky News’s economics editor, Ed Conway, has been buffeted by a swirling gale of rumours and speculation. He’s just blogged about it:
When I touched down yesterday afternoon, I was told by well-placed sources that the Greek authorities were “definitely” going to make this Friday’s €300m IMF repayment; it was “nailed on”, they added.
This evening government officials are saying they will withhold the payment if there is no deal by Friday or Monday. Yesterday it sounded like Syriza was close to a deal with its creditors on what kind of primary surplus they need to aim for in their budgets in the coming years. Today they seem further away. A few hours ago one eurogroup character said he expected a deal “within hours”; then up cropped another to say he was not optimistic.
Now, some of this is certainly negotiation tactics and brinksmanship. But only so much. The real sense you get when you come here to Athens is one of chaos. Even inside the government, at the highest reaches, many ministers simply do not know what their colleagues are doing. No-one really knows what the plan is, when it comes to negotiations with the European institutions — and the more time you spend here, the more it seems that this is because there is no coherent plan.....