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Another mission of representatives of the European Central Bank, European Commission and the International Monetary Fund are visiting Athens next week. The visit was announced after the official publication of the letter which the Minister of Finance of Greece Georgios Papakonstantinou sent to European institutions and the IMF to convene a general meeting. Representative of the European Commission, ECB and IMF, along with the Greek authorities should prepare the final form of the procedure for granting financial assistance to Greece. Finance Minister stressed that sending the letter of invitation does not trigger the aid mechanism, but it is simply an administrative procedure. Papakonstntinou stressed that Greece continues to look forward to the credit of free markets and still has no intention of benefiting the financial support from outside. However, economic analysts in the country claim that this step leads to the firm activation of the bilateral assistance. 

Meanwhile the spread index of the ten-year Greek government bonds again exceeded 400 basis points, which converts the interest rate on government crediting to the overwhelming for Greece 7 per cent. If the trend of increase in spread-s continues, the government of George Papandreou will be forced to request financial assistance. In this regard, Commissioner for Economic Affairs of the European Union, Olli Rehn said that the media must be especially careful in the reporting news, which in many cases appear to be just rumors or untruths. The commissioner recommended that the Greek government should take action to reduce salaries in the private sector, just like the cuts in the public sector. 

Representatives from the International Monetary Fund announced they are ready for the preparation of long-term economic recovery plan of the normal rhythm of country. "This is the first visit of the IMF in this matter and we will discuss two major topics - the amount and method of allocating the required assistance and taking the necessary measures to rescue the Greek economy," said IMF representative Caroline Atkinson from Washington. 

President of the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce Janos Gramatidis commented that any mechanism that will help Greece meet its program to implement internal reforms is welcome. In this regard, the business circles in the country have given their support for the activation of bilateral aid.