Greece could secure short-term debt relief measures “very soon” if it implements remaining reforms agreed under its bailout program, the head of the euro zone’s bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Klaus Regling said on Saturday.
“We have been working on them (short-term debt relief measures) and they could be implemented very soon,” ESM chief Klaus Regling told Ta Nea newspaper in an interview.
“We hope that the government implements remaining prior actions very soon,” he said, referring to plans to set up a new privatization fund and to push ahead with specific state asset divestments.
After its bailout program ends in 2018, Regling said Greece would be offered longer-term measures, which would help to reduce its debt pile, currently about 176 percent of its gross domestic product.
Regling also said Greece could start tapping debt markets next year if it sticks to the agreed reforms.
Asked when exactly this might happen, he said: “I can’t say which month. But some time next year and long before the end of the program because once the program ends … we will not be financing it (the country) anymore.”
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PS Sure. The Greek Program 2. Review has been launched and lenders resumme good old strategy of stick and carrot, whereas one more carrot is dangling in front of the Greek mule.
….sure: “if”….we sell the entire country for 2 euros first.
The EU is really like a broken record. Always the same tired, old refrain: just a little more and all will be well…
Sell assets like GDR for 1 Euro but this time not to rich capitalistic pigs but to every unemployed