Eurozone finance ministers gave their final approval to a second bailout for Greece today and turned their fire on Spain, demanding it aim for a tougher deficit target this year to get back on track in 2013.
Greece, the source of the currency bloc’s debt crisis, swapped its privately held bonds at the weekend for new, longer maturity paper with less than half the nominal value, a move that cut its debts by more than €100 billion
The exchange paved the way for euro zone ministers to give the final political go-ahead to a €130 billion package that aims to finance Athens until 2014. The decision will be formalised by junior officials tomorrow.
“As agreed, new official financing of €130 billion will be committed by the euro area and the IMF for the period 2012-2014,” Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, told a news conference.
Thanks to a high take-up of the bond swap offer, Greece’s debt would fall below a target of 120 per cent of GDP in 2020, reaching 117 per cent, from 160 per cent now, he said.
(source: Reuters)
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
