June 7, 2011
European countries must decide how to plug potential funding gaps for Greece next year before the International Monetary Fund can release the next batch of loans, an envoy from the Fund said Tuesday, as the struggling country's prime minister convened party deputies to discuss further austerity measures.
Senior representative Bob Traa said EU leaders had "hard nuts to crack" at an EU summit in late June — agreeing on additional rescue support if needed — before the IMF would release its part of a euro12 billion July installment, which is due as part of last year's euro110 billion bailout package.
The initial rescue loan agreement had predicted Greece would be able to borrow in the markets for part of its funding needs next year, but high interest rates mean that is highly unlikely. As a result, it's expected that Greece will need extra help beyond the current package of rescue loans.
"What needs to be decided is how to fill in the various parts of the financing side ... I believe there is a summit in Europe by the heads of state (in late June), where some hard nuts need to be cracked and they need to make some decisions," Traa said during a banking conference in Athens. "And then we will actually be ready to go to our board and disburse in early July, but we know that time is of the essence."
More
No comments:
Post a Comment