The eurozone’s 17 finance ministers said today (31 October) that Greece must act “swiftly” to resolve the remaining issues that is preventing it from getting its next bail-out loan instalment.

Finance ministers held a near three-hour conference call in which they discussed the measures that Greece’s government has vowed to take to meet reform and austerity targets set by the country’s international lenders.

Antonis Samaras, Greece’s prime minister, said yesterday (31 October) that his government had reached an agreement with the ‘troika’ – the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – over structural reforms and savings worth €13.5 billion.

After today’s conference call, the finance ministers said that they welcomed the “ambitious and wide-ranging measures in the areas of fiscal consolidation, structural reforms, privatisation and financial-sector stabilisation”.

However, they said that although there had been progress on a deal between Greek authorities and the troika, there had not been an agreement yet.

They added: “We called on the Greek authorities to solve remaining issues so as to swiftly finalise the negotiations with the troika institutions.”

Earlier references to an extra meeting of eurozone finance ministers to discuss the situation in Greece, possibly on 8 November, was dropped from the final statement.

Instead, they added that they hoped to make a decision on whether Greece would get its next €31.5bn bail-out instalment at their next scheduled meeting.

“The Eurogroup expects to further discuss the Greek adjustment programme at its next regular meeting on 12 November on the basis of the relevant programme documentation and seek to conclude on the programme, subject to the completion of prior actions by the Greek authorities,” the statement said.

After the conference call Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, also said that there had been “considerable progress” but that a deal had not yet been reached.