FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Union and International Monetary
Fund should cut interest rates on existing and future loans to Greece to
provide some debt relief and put Greece’s debt burden on a more
sustainable path, Charles Dallara, managing director of the bank lobby
group IIF said on Wednesday.
Speaking in Athens, Dallara also suggested Greece’s fiscal targets
should be relaxed far more than the two-year extension currently
envisioned by Greece’s European creditors.
Dallara said debt sustainability for Greece should include
“cutting interest rates on existing and prospective EU and IMF lending
to funding costs.” This would provide “meaningful debt service relief to
Greece.”
Dallara, who as head of the Institute of International Finance
helped to negotiate the private-sector debt restructuring in Greece,
made no mention of private sector involvement in any future deal to ease
Greece’s debt burden.
Dallara reiterated that Greece needs “less austerity and more
growth.” He called for easing its fiscal consolidation targets “to
something closer to that of Ireland, which has been moving steadily with
annual reductions of 1.5% per annum.” This is “just one third of what is
programmed in 2013 for Greece.”
— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: ccermak@mni-news.com —
[TOPICS: M$X$$$,MGX$$$,MI$$$$,M$$CR$]
