Rumors Germany Sees Greek Default As Unavoidable Are False

A German government spokesman Wednesday denied that Berlin now considers a Greek default as inevitable.
“I can clearly say for the federal government that those rumors are false. There is no such decision in Germany,” Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said at a routine government news conference when asked about market rumors that Germany reckons a Greek default is unavoidable.
Seibert said that euro-zone finance ministers, due to hold a conference call later on Wednesday and meet in Brussels next week, cannot approve a EUR130 billion aid package for Athens until Greece has met all conditions and a commission of experts from the European Commission, European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund has published its assessment of Greece’s ability to put its debt on a sustainable basis.
Euro-zone finance ministers had planned to meet in Brussels later Wednesday, but cancelled that meeting in favor of a telephone conference because of the lack of documentation needed to make any decisions on Greece. In addition to waiting for the so-called troika report, euro-zone finance ministers are still waiting for written assurances from Greece’s political parties that they will implement agreed reforms after the upcoming elections and to outline how a funding gap of more than EUR300 million in Greece’s 2012 budget can be closed.
(source: Dow Jones)