Greek government shows referendum card

Euro group ministers would hold a meeting to negotiate over Greek bailout. Probable start time is around 12:30 GMT.

Latest updates -

• Greek government continued to express their difficulty over the repayment of loans. They have prioritized their commitments towards Greek people over the pension and basic facilities.

• Greek government is looking for some sort of debt restructuring and portioned write offs mainly from the official lenders.

• On Friday, Greece has repaid first installment of € 310 million to IMF however another € 1.3 billion is coming due through March end. Sources say that Greek is in dire need of bailout money.

• European lenders led by Germany have reiterated their position against any such debt write offs and continue to block the disbursement of last remaining tranche of € 7.2 billion of current bailout programme unless progress is made to keep the bailout agreement and reforms.

• ECB in its policy meeting on last Thursday has defended its position on withdrawal of waiver on Greek bonds as collateral.

• Moreover the current asset purchase programme will not buy Greek securities as several criteria remain unfulfilled according to ECB.

• ECB and the Euro group have refused to remove the cap of € 15 billion on short term borrowing, as it would mean monetary financing which is prohibited under European treaty.

Greek trump card -

• Facing the pressure from the Euro group and Euro skeptics within the party, Greek finance minister raised the possibility of holding referendum over the terms and conditions, should the talks fail to yield progress over debt and bailout terms. The government clarified that it is not a referendum over Grexit.

• This shows a clear hard stance by the Greek government and if the path finally leads to this road, it would clearly exacerbate the possibilities of Grexit.

Euro for the time being, has focused away from the Greek drama, however if situation leads to a referendum path could sour the mood and sentiment further. Euro is currently trading at 1.087 against the dollar.