EU, IMF delay Greek inspection visit news conference

 The news conference concluding an inspection visit by EU, IMF and ECB officials will take place later than initially planned on Friday, the EU said on Thursday.

Officials said there were no major problems in the
talks on Greece's progress on reforms in exchange for a 110 billion euro ($149.8 billion) bailout, but that the inspectors needed more time to finalise documents and conclude meetings.

"The joint press conference on the conclusions of the third review of Greece's economic programme, which was scheduled for tomorrow (Feb. 11) at 1000 a.m. (0800 GMT) is delayed on Friday Feb. 11, to a time to be announced," the EU said in a statement.

The officials are in Athens to monitor the debt-choked country's progress in the fourth quarter of 2010 on the path towards tidying up its finances and opening up the economy to more competitiveness and less red tape.

Greek officials say they have secured the fourth, 15 billion euro tranche of aid and have also set the country a new target of cutting the budget deficit to 3 billion euros in 2015. 

by Ingrid Melander

source: Reuters