BERLIN (MNI) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on
Friday that he did not exclude that Greece might need further financial
help from its Eurozone peers before 2020.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the German parliament’s
budget committee, Schaeuble said that the second Greek aid program has a
duration of three years. “That is why one cannot rule out with certainty
that after this duration and before 2020 there will be new demands,” he
said.

Still, the minister said he was “certain” that the German
parliament will approve the second Greek aid package on Monday.

Earlier today, the main opposition party, the center-left SPD,
signaled that it will vote for the aid package.

“We’re principally ready for this,” said the SPD’s parliamentary
budget speaker, Carsten Schneider. A rejection of the aid measures for
Greece would be in the end more costly for the German tax payer than
approving them, he argued.

German Deputy Finance Minister Steffen Kampeter on Thursday told
the European affairs committee of the German parliament that Germany’s
share of the E130 billion Greek aid package would amount to some E37.5
billion in the case that the IMF does not contribute to the deal.

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com

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