EU Finance Ministers Delay Aid Decision

Posted September 16th, 2011 at 9:45 am (UTC-5)
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European leaders are putting off until next month a decision on paying the next batch of emergency loans to Greece.

Friday’s announcement follows talks among central bankers, finance ministers and others in Wroclaw, Poland.

The next $11 billion installment of Greece’s first bailout package depends on a review of that nation’s finances. The payment had been scheduled for the end of this month.

Greece is deeply in debt and one of the 17 nations that use the euro currency. Greece’s fellow eurozone members have put together two bailout packages, contingent on Athens cutting expenses and raising revenue. Eurozone leaders have been debating when and how to rescue the troubled economy with more loans.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told other top financial officials at the Poland meeting that political wrangling was making the situation worse. Analysts say Geithner’s rare presence at the European talks is a sign of increasing U.S. concern about the global impact of the eurozone debt crisis.