ECB And IMF Propose New ‘Radical’ Greece Debt Plan
By Ria Novosti
The European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have proposed a radical new sovereign debt restructuring plan for Greece, the second such plan in a year, German daily Der Spiegel’s online paper said on Sunday.
The plan includes a further write-down of 50 percent of the nominal sum, which would allow a lowering of Greece’s debt to 70 percent of GDP by 2020, from the projected 144 percent, the paper says. Greece has already been allowed to write off around 100 billion euro in debt to its private creditors. However, that failed to prevent a rise in debt levels because of the contraction in the economy, which was worse than expected.
At the moment, the lion’s share of the 300 billion euro owed by Greece is in the hands of the Eurozone nations, ECB and IMF.
Germany, the main donor to the loan program for Greece, is against additional restructuing of the Greek debts, Der Spiegel reports. This could require a meeting of the Eurogroup – the third this year – after the last one in Greece on November 26 failed to produce an agreement on whether to give Athens further help.