ATHENS (MNI) – The Greek Finance Ministry confirmed tonight that
Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou had attended a meeting of
Eurozone officials in Luxembourg earlier today in which the Greek
economy was a topic of discussion.

The meeting was called by Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker,
who is also the prime minister of Luxembourg, the Greek Finance Ministry
said. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also participated in
the meeting, though that was not stated by the Greek Finance Ministry.

“The Greek finance minister was called to participate in the
exchange of views regarding economic developments in Greece,” a ministry
statement said. “It is obvious that during this meeting a Greek exit
from the Eurozone was not discussed.” That was a reference to an article
published earlier Friday on the website of German weekly Der Spiegel
that claimed Greece was considering leaving the Eurozone and creating
its own independent currency.

“Foreign press articles which have circulated such a rumor were
irresponsible,” the ministry said. It added that, “the Greek government
remains committed to the implementation of the fiscal policy program as
agreed with the European Union, the ECB and the IMF in order to put its
public finances in order and regain growth.”

Earlier Friday evening, Market News International reported that
Greece was seeking an extension of maturities and lower interest rates
on its current E110 billion package of loans from the International
Monetary Fund and fellow Eurozone countries.

MNI also reported that Greece was mulling a request for an entirely
new loan should the country not be able to access financial markets in
2012, when it has about E30 billion worth of bond redemptions coming
due.

Senior European Union officials told MNI that Germany is extremely
reluctant to give any new loan or promise of a loan to Greece. The
solution, in the view of Berlin, is to push through some kind of debt
restructuring for Greece, which the Germans are referring to as a
“re-profiling.”

The EU sources also said that since last Monday, financial
inspections carried out in Athens by inspectors from the European
Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF have shown that the
Greek fiscal consolidation program is way off track. This has alarmed
other Eurozone members, these officials said. They noted that Greece may
have trouble meeting its borrowing needs not only in 2012 but this year
as well.

–Angelika Papamiltiadou; a_papamiltiadou@hotmail.com

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