It's official. Greece needs a further 15 billion euros in addition to the 130 billion granted by international institutions and the 100 billion it should be able to obtain from the agreement with private creditors. The European Commission has asked the other 16 euro area countries to help make up for the missing €15 billion, because Athens has reached the limit of what it could do with the latest cuts and losses required of private investors. This was stated by a European official.
The gap could be filled with more help from euro area governments, from central banks of countries or from national banks such as the French Caisse des depots, which could cut some of their interest on Greek bonds. Until now, in fact, the Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund have granted loans worth billions of euros to help Greece but without incurring any losses, the EU source said.
The official also added that the settlement with private creditors (“psi” is an acronym in English) should be announced by the end of the week. According to sources close to the agreement private individuals would suffer losses of 70% through a 50% reduction in the value of their securities, a lower interest rate between 3,5 and 4,5% and an extension in the payment deadline.
At stake, however, still remain the 50/55 billion euros of Greek government bonds in the hands of the European Central Bank: it is up to the ECB to give up part of the profits and come to the aid of Greece. But the last word belongs to Merkel: until today, in fact, it was the German members who opposed the ECB's participation in the Greek bailout.
