EU says no Greek deal this week

European Union officials have quashed hopes that Greece could seal a deal to receive access to finance from its creditors this week.

Speaking to reporters ahead of Friday's meeting (24 April) between finance ministers from the eurozone currency bloc, EU officials said conference would be brief and would be little more than an outline on the state of play in the Greek economy.

Greece was supposed to submit a comprehensive list of economic reforms to its creditors by 30 April at the latest, but this deadline is unlikely to be met, an EU official said.

The Greek government acted on Monday (20 April) to boost liquidity and raise funds for upcoming payments by ordering local municipal authorities to transfer all funds to an account at the central bank.

The central government's decision to sequester funds from local governments was met with revolt on Tuesday. At an emergency meeting of the Central Union of Greek Municipalities, mayors railed against the decree and protested to the Greek Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas.

The mayors were quoted as saying "the money is ours and we will do with it what we want", according to media reports. Regardless, the Bank of Greece has been instructed to take the municipalities' cash reserves with immediate effect, in order to cover Greece's upcoming payments.

These include Athens' monthly wages and pensions pay out due at the end of this month, as well as payments to creditors due in May.

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned that time and money were running out for Greece, although he stressed that a Greek exit of the eurozone would be a dangerous for Greece and the rest of Europe.

Greek banks are at present being kept afloat with help from emergency liquidity assistance from the European Central Bank. Leaked reports on Tuesday suggested the ECB was considering reining in some of the assistance.

The reports caused the yield on Greek bonds to soar, while hitting Greek stocks.