BERLIN (MNI) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble suggested
again Sunday that private sector involvement in the rescue program for
Greece will have to be increased.
In an interview with German ARD public television, Schaeuble said
the EU summit on October 23 will hopefully bring agreement on a
comprehensive package of measures to counter the debt crisis in the
Eurozone.
Part of this package will be a sustainable solution for Greece’s
debt problems, the minister told ARD.
“This will not be possible without a reduction of Greece’s total
debt which will likely have to be larger than was planned in July,” he
said. It is clear that private creditors will have to contribute to this
debt reduction, he stressed.
On Wednesday, Schaeuble had said in a speech at a conference of his
center-right CDU that “if the Greek debt level is not sustainable in the
long run, and a lot speaks for that it is not, then it has to be
reduced.”
“However, this cannot happen solely to the detriment of tax
payers,” he stressed then. “That is why there is no way around involving
the private sector in a reduction of [Greece's] total debt level.”
Schaeuble explained in the ARD interview that there will be
negotiations with the banks about a voluntary participation in the
higher debt reduction for Greece.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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