While Euro zone policymakers argue over how to handle the mounting crisis, a new German report has fuelled fears that Greece may have missed fiscal targets set by its leaders and that the country probably has no hope of averting default.
The country’s Finance Minister denied the damning report in the weekly magazine Spiegel, which claims that international inspectors will allege that Greece failed on all its fiscal targets, a condition for getting a key, fifth tranche of a 110 billion euro bailout. In a Greek Mega TV interview, George Papaconstantinou stressed:
“Negotiations continue and will be completed in the next few days. We have every reason to believe the report will be positive for the country.”
ECB board member Juergen Stark also commented on earlier views, claiming Greece’s privatisation programme could raise six times more than the 50 billion euros planned. “The Greek government has shares in listed companies, it owns real estate. Experts estimate the sales potential (from privatisations) at up to 300 billion euros,” he told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
EU officials have called for Athens to step up privatisations urgently and suggested setting up a trustee institution to help oversee the process, similar to the body that privatised East German companies after the fall of communism.
However, the EU has not asked to play a major role in the asset sales and is only offering its expertise, Papaconstantinou said on Saturday.
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