Prime Minister George Papandreou said Thursday that a new aid deal for Greece, which also includes a 50% write-down of the country’s debt, would give Greece time to enact badly needed reforms.
Speaking in a nationally televised address, Papandreou also moved to reassure nervous Greeks that the debt write-down would not collapse the country’s banks, or impair the ability of its deficit-ridden social security funds to pay out pensions.
“Yesterday’s decision gives us time. It removes the insecurity; it gives us the opportunity to chart and follow our own path,” he said. “And I want to confirm that this decision will in no way create problems for the banking system or for [the payment of] pensions.”
His remarks come less than a day after European leaders reached a deal in an attempt to stem the spread of Europe’s widening debt crisis.
(source: Dow Jones)
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