FRANKFURT (MNI) – The rescue plan agreed to recently by the
European Commission, the IMF and Greece is only a reprieve for the
fiscally embattled state and not a solution, Moritz Kraemer, head of
European sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor’s, said in an interview
published Wednesday.
Greece must convince its population of the necessity of its
austerity program, Kraemer told German weekly Die Zeit, cautioning that
Greece’s recent history lacks examples of the country being able to
implement programs of the current plan’s scale.
The rescue package “is not the solution,” Kraemer insisted. It is
“not at all true,” he said, to think that the deal has resolved the
Greek case, rather “it only brings a respite.”
The Greek government must “use this window of time to get down to
business in an engaged manner and indeed exhibit its first successes,”
he urged. Then, the country will be able to borrow again from the
capital markets.
Greece must, however, convince its citizens of the need for the
austerity program, he said. “A problem is that Greece has not delivered
an example of being able to implement such a massive program in its
recent history,” he pointed out.
“The markets naturally have doubt in this regard, [and] we also
have these,” he said.
Greece will, however, likely not have to restructure its debts,
Kraemer noted, adding that historically, only 14% of countries with
Greece’s rating have defaulted within the last ten years.
Medium-term economic outlooks have taken a lasting turn for the
worse in recent weeks and “not only for Greece,” he said.
–Frankfurt bureau; +49-69-720142; frankfurt@marketnews.com
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