Financial Times: Eurozone governments have brokered a long-awaited debt relief deal for Greece, pushing back repayment deadlines on almost €100bn of bailout loans as the country prepares to exit its era of financial rescue programmes. Finance ministers hammered out the final points of an agreement in more than six hours of talks that stretched into the night in Luxembourg on Thursday.
The deal was immediately hailed by governments as a “historic” step after eight years in which Greece has undergone three bailout programmes and suffered the worst depression of any European economy in modern times. “It is an exceptional moment,” Pierre Moscovici, the EU’s economy commissioner, said after the meeting. “The Greek crisis ends here tonight in Luxembourg.”
The deal involves a 10-year extension of maturities on loans from the European Financial Stability Facility and a 10-year deferral on interest payments, Mario Centeno told a news conference.
Centeno added that this will allow Greece to issue bonds across the yield curve. Athens is also likely to pay lower borrowing costs on its new bonds as the new package of aid will help set up a cash buffer totalling 24.1 billion euros that would cover Greek financing needs for 21 months, Centeno said. (CNBC)
Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Friday a deal extending and deferring repayments on part of Greece’s debt pile sent a clear signal to markets that the country had turned a corner from crises which rattled it in the past. Euro zone finance ministers on Friday offered Greece a 10-year deferral and maturities extension on a large part of past loans as well as 15 billion euros in new credit to ensure Athens can stand on its own feet after it exits its bailout in August.
“I have to say that the Greek government is happy with this deal. We consider that debt is now viable, we can now have access to the markets .. But at the same time this government will not forget what the Greek people went through in the past eight years,” Tsakalotos told reporters. Greece’s current international bailout, the country’s third rescue program since 2010, ends in August.
“I think this is the end of the Greek crisis, I think Greece is turning a page, I think it has all the building blocks there to leave the program with confidence that we can access the markets and we can implement our growth strategy and turn the agenda away from one of fiscal adjustment .. to one of growth,” Tsakalotos said.
The International Monetary Fund welcomed on Friday the deal on debt relief for Greece, saying it will improve debt sustainability in the medium term, but maintained reservations on the long term.
