More time for Greece not solution
Source: Agencies |
August 24, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
GIVING Greece more time to carry out reforms and spending cuts won't resolve the debt-laden country's problems, Germany's finance minister said yesterday, a day before the Greek prime minister meets Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is seeking to earn his nation more time to complete reforms and hold on to bailout loans, without which Greece would be forced into a chaotic default on its debts and could be forced out of the 17-country eurozone.
Athens has faltered in the speed and effectiveness with which it has imposed the reforms, fuelling impatience among its creditors, notably Germany, which is the single largest contributor to its 240 billion-euro (US$300 billion) bailout packages. A pair of indecisive polls this year, which brought a coalition government under Samaras to power, didn't help.
Greece's continued access to those packages hinges on a favorable report next month from the so-called "troika" of the country's debt inspectors - the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. If Greece is found to have failed on key economic reforms that are conditions of the bailout loan, vital funds could be halted.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble noted that it's only a few months since creditors drew up a second bailout package and agreed on a massive debt writedown for Greece.
"You cannot just say after half a year, all of that is not enough, because then you will never win the confidence of financial markets," Schaeuble said. "So more time is not a solution for the problems."
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