12 November 2012

FT: EU-IMF feud erupts over Greek debt

Eurozone finance ministers postponed agreement on Greece's long-delayed €31.3 billion aid payment for yet another week, as divisions between the International Monetary Fund and EU creditors over how fast Athens must reduce its burgeoning debt levels burst into the open.

Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief, and Jean-Claude Juncker, chair of the eurogroup of finance ministers, publicly sparred over whether Greece must reduce its debt levels to 120 per cent of economic output by 2020, long viewed the target to get Athens back to a sustainable debt level.

An agreement between the IMF and eurozone governments is essential to releasing the bailout tranche since both creditors disburse financial assistance concurrently. Greece’s ability to raise the money on its own has been cast into doubt after the European Central Bank refused to increase the amount of treasury bills it would accept as collateral from Greek banks seeking low-interest ECB loans. Without the ability to use treasury bills as collateral, Greek banks have little financial incentive to purchase them. But Olli Rehn, the EU’s top economic official, said even if the ECB did not raise the ceiling of treasury bills it would accept, Greek banks had improved their cash position enough that they were expected to purchase the debt anyway, getting over what Mr Rehn termed a “Greek fiscal cliff”.

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