Greece failed to reach an initial deal with the European Union and the IMF to unlock aid after the creditors dismissed a package of reforms from Athens as ideas rather than a concrete plan, officials said on Tuesday.
The lack of a deal further raises pressure on Athens, which faces the prospect of running out of money in a few weeks unless it can convince lenders to dole out more financial help.
Athens put a brave face on the failure to reach an agreement with the "Brussels Group" of representatives from the EU and the IMF, saying it remained keen for a deal on the basis of its long-held demand that the measures it is asked to implement do not hurt economic growth. Lenders will intensify efforts to collect data in Athens, it said.
[CAD:FXAcademy CTA #75]Optimistic View
Greece's debt drama may be getting louder and more dire as negotiators lose patience, but some market players are shrugging off a potential default as little more than a hiccup in the European market rally.
"Medium term, there is a very clear potential that Greece should go out ," Michael Strobaek, global chief investment officer at Credit Suisse, said last week, citing the country's "notoriously ineffective" reform efforts.
But while a Greek exit from the euro zone, dubbed a Grexit, might be tragic and chaotic for Greece, financial markets might not react much.
“I don't think the markets are going to riot," Stobaek said. "Even if (interest) rates were to go up because Greece went out, it's not a disaster," for other heavily indebted countries such as Spain and Italy because they will still have access to relatively low financing rates, he noted.