Bloomberg
May 2, 2011
Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said easier terms on the 110 billion euros ($163 billion) of international loans would help avoid a debt restructuring, which he ruled out.
Papaconstantinou said in Athens today that he “expressed the hope that we will have a better settlement of terms” for last year’s bailout package. “There will be no restructuring or haircut,” he said.
Greece received one extension of repayments on loans from the European Union earlier this year as well as a cut in the interest rate. The easier terms were intended to give the country leeway to get over a “hump” in repayments hitting the country in 2014 and 2015.
Papaconstantinou was responding to reporter’s questions after he was quoted by French daily Liberation as ruling out a restructuring while saying that “in several countries of Northern Europe, the debate on financial aid to countries in trouble has turned emotional, which doesn’t help us get to a solution.”
“It would be better for us to extend once again the timing of repayment of the 110 billion euros that we’re borrowing from our partners and that we further reduce the interest rate,” the finance minister said, according to the newspaper. “This would allow us to keep meeting our payments.”
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