Troika creditors delay return to Greece to January

International creditors said on Saturday that they have delayed until January their next trip to Greece for talks on a deal key to unblocking one billion euros in bailout funds. Senior auditors from the so-called creditor troika -- the EU, IMF and European Central Bank -- had been expected to return to Athens on Monday to resume an evaluation of pledged Greek reforms. On Friday Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said that because the two sides still had not reached agreement, lower-level "technical teams" would resume talks in Athens on Monday and the mission chiefs would return after Eurogroup meeting on December 9. But late Saturday a spokesman for EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said full negotiating teams would not return to Athens until January "after the authorities have made further progress in implementation" of reforms demanded by Greece's creditors. An agreement with the troika is necessary to unblock a one-billion-euro ($1.4 billion) instalment of financial aid pending since June. Athens has been keen to wrap the talks before it assumes the rotating EU presidency in January. The so-called troika of EU, IMF and European Central Bank creditors and Athens disagree on the level of a forecasted financing gap for 2014 and the measures that need to be taken to cover it. The troika launched its regular audit at the end of September and talks then resumed in early November before another break last week. The troika predicts the 2014 financing gap will exceed 1.5 billion euros, while the Greek government estimates the sum to be slightly more than 500 million euros. Discussions are reportedly stumbling on the issue of a new property tax, debtor property auctions, layoffs in the state sector and the slow pace of privatisation.