Finance | 28.01.2012

Talks between Greece and private creditors 'very close' to deal

 

Greek debt talks are to continue through the weekend

Ongoing negotiations between the top leadership of Greece and negotiators for banks and private investors have closed without a final agreement, but both sides say they are making progress.

 

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos were confident as they emerged from hours of talks on Saturday with Charles Dallara, the head negotiator for banks and private investors which hold a large portion of Greek government bonds.
"We are a step away," Venizelos had said earlier, adding that the negotiations were "difficult and delicate."
The talks, which have been going on for three weeks, center around attempting to write down Greek sovereign debt by 50 percent.
Dallara and colleague Jean Lemierre were equally sanguine about the talks, however.
"Further progress was made, building on the understandings reached yesterday (Friday) on the key legal and technical issues," he said in a statement after the meeting adjourned.
If the negotiations were to fail, Greece will be unable to pay 14.5-billion-euro bond on March 20, which would mean it would default on its debt.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, IMF chief Christine Lagarde encouraged global governments to help raise money to increase the IMF and EU bailout fund by 500 billion euros, citing the need for a firewall to prevent spreading contagion within the European Union.
"Now is the time," she said. "There has been a lot of pressure building in order to see a solution come about."
Author: Stuart Tiffen (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Nicole Goebel COPIADO : http://www.dw-world.de/