Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis on Saturday said that Greece would not require a new bailout from its international creditors if they would simply restructure its debt.
Athens last week resumed talks with its creditors in a bid to unblock 7.2 billion euros (US$8.06 billion) from its EU-IMF bailout before state coffers run dry.
Analysts believe that even if it manages to secure the last tranche of aid, Athens might have to obtain a new rescue package to stay afloat.
Photo: AFP
However, the Greek finance minister said that Greece could do without a new bailout.
“One of the conditions for this to happen though, is an important restructuring of the debt,” he told the Efimerida ton Sindakton daily in an interview published on Saturday.
The radical-left SYRIZA government came into power in January on a campaign promise that it would seek to get part of its debt written off.
However, its creditors — the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF — have reiterated that that is impossible. Varoufakis, whose negotiating style has irritated his EU counterparts, also took a swipe at the eurozone in the interview, saying that if it “doesn’t change it will die.”
He added that “no country, not only Greece, should have joined such a shaky common monetary system.”
Nevertheless, Varoufakis said it was “one thing to say we shouldn’t have joined the euro and it is another to say that we have to leave” because backtracking now would lead to “an unforeseen negative situation.”
Asked about reported insults from fellow Eurogroup ministers of finance during a tense meeting in Riga on April 24, Varoufakis was also dismissive.
Media reports said he had been branded a “gambler,” an “amateur” and an “adventurist” by his peers.
“Those would have surely been heavy offenses if they had been expressed, but they were not,” Varoufakis said.
Athens is struggling to pay salaries and pensions without the promised loans. Almost a billion euros in debt and interest is also due for repayment to the IMF by Tuesday next week.
Unless an agreement is reached to unlock the remaining EU-IMF bailout money, the debt-ridden country faces default and a possible exit from the euro.
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