ATHENS: Greece wants to use some ¤11bn ($15bn) left in its EU bank rescue package to meet upcoming needs and avoid a new bailout loan, a government source said yesterday.
“The ¤11bn can keep Greece from needing a third loan,” a Greek finance ministry source said on the sidelines of a two-day Eurogroup meeting in Athens.
“We are covered for the next 12 months. With this 11 billion we will be covered to 2016. It’s simple logic,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A sum of ¤50bn from Greece’s EU rescue loans was earmarked in 2012 for the recapitalisation of Greek banks after they suffered heavy losses due to the write-down on government bonds as part of the bailout programme.
Of that total, some ¤39bn was eventually employed to recapitalise Greek banks last year.
“It is an important sum. Better that it remain as a safety cushion,” the official said, adding that the money can “either be directed to repay debt, or to the financing gap in 2015-2016.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem refused to comment on whether Greece, which intends to start borrowing on markets again later this year, might yet need another rescue loan.
“Let’s concentrate on the programme that still runs to the end of the year,” he said.
“Later this year, at the earliest in the summer, we will come back to the question of what happens after this programme,” the head of the eurozone finance ministers said.
AFP
