BRUSSELS (MNI) – Default is not an issue for heavily-indebted
Greece and the Eurozone heads of state and government have made a very
serious commitment to help the country if it needs aid, European Central
Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday.
“Taking all the information I have, a default is not an issue for
Greece,” Trichet told reporters at a press conference after the ECB’s
April rate decision meeting.
Eurozone leaders late March agreed a deal to provide aid to Greece,
if it is needed, using a combination of bilateral loans and
International Monetary Fund loans. But the deal has done little to
reassure the markets, who are looking for more details about how and
when that aid will come.
The plan put together by the Eurozone is a “workable framework,”
Trichet said, suggesting that he was now resigned to the involvement of
the International Monetary Fund in a plan to assist Greek. Before the
plan was announced on March 25, Trichet and other ECB officials had
expressed strong objections to IMF financial contributions to Greece.
“I would not comment on whether the market itself understands (the
EU leaders statement),” Trichet said, but he added that “nobody should
take lightly a statement which is signed” by the heads of state and
government.
Trichet said the statement represents a “very, very serious
commitment, that’s the way I look at it myself, as president of the
ECB,” he said.
–Brussels: 0032 487 (0) 32 803 665, echarlton@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: MT$$$$,M$$FX$,M$$EC$,M$X$$$,M$$CR$,MGX$$$]
