Euro-zone finance ministers prepare for verdict on new bailout for Greece

Euro-zone finance ministers were yesterday set to give their verdict on Greece's last-chance bid for another bailout to keep its economy afloat and prevent its exit from the single European currency.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said she hoped for "a lot of progress" after the Greek parliament backed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' new reform plan, aiming at a rescue worth more than €80 billion (HK$690 billion).

But austerity-minded Germany holds the keys to the outcome, and a European Union leader and two other sources gave no more than a 50-50 chance that a make-or-break European summit today would approve a deal.

Hardliners Berlin and the Baltic states are exasperated with Greece's leftist Syriza government, blaming it for more than five months of bitter negotiations in which trust has been the biggest casualty.

Finance ministers from the 19-country euro zone were to meet in Brussels yesterday to review Greece's proposals for market-oriented reforms in exchange for its third bailout since 2010.

Europe's economic affairs commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, said that "rapidly" putting reforms in action was "key to getting a programme, to be able to tackle the debt".