Greece Will Receive Aid on Time, Official Says

A team of inspectors from Greece's lenders will return to Athens this week and the country will receive the 8-billion-euro ($11 billion) aid tranche it needs to avoid bankruptcy next month, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Tuesday.

Venizelos said Prime Minister George Papandreou would send a letter outlining a new austerity drive to the team from the so-called "troika" of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

The troika has demanded written assurances from Athens that it will take steps to catch up with fiscal consolidation and meet targets outlined under its 110-billion-euro bailout deal.

Venizelos said euro zone finance ministers would then discuss and authorise the aid tranche. "The disbursement will take place, and it will take place on time," Venizelos said.

Venizelos also said Greece must endure austerity to pass from a vicious to a virtuous economic cycle.

"We should make a super effort to achieve our fiscal targets, to drastically cut our primary deficit in 2011, to take the additional measures for the 2012 budget, to achieve primary surpluses in 2012 for the first time after many years, so that we start entering a virtuous circle."