Berita Unik Seputar Dunia: Eurozone agrees new Greek bailout

7.22.2011

Eurozone agrees new Greek bailout

7/22/2011 Diposting oleh Muhamad Rian Santoso

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Greece received its first aid package in May last year, but the debt crisis continues to undermine confidence in global financial markets, with some commentators suggesting it threatens the future of the euro itself.

Draft statement

As well as allowing for investors to take losses on some of the Greek debt, the statement also allows for the expansion of the role of the current European rescue fund and a debt swap.

This could help other struggling nations like Portugal.

Jan Kees de Jager, the Dutch finance minister, had said a so-called "selective default" on Greece's debts was "potentially inevitable".

He said French objections to such a default had been "swept under the table".

Germany has long insisted that private lenders to Greece should be forced to take losses as part of any further rescue deal for Athens.

Athens has already implemented a raft of wide-ranging austerity measures, including spending cuts and tax rises, and earlier this month agreed to further drastic action to cut its debt.

But the suggestion that private investors should suffer losses has been opposed by France and the European Central Bank, which fear it could spark a Europe-wide banking crisis, push Spain and possibly Italy into trouble, and even jeopardise the solvency of the ECB itself.

Euro crisis: Grading the summitQ&A: Greek debt crisis

The only way to resolve the problem is to restructure Greece's debts, many observers argue.

Germany has proposed allowing Athens more time to repay, effectively rolling over existing debts into new bonds.

It wants private investors, largely banks, to participate in this restructuring.

But the European Central Bank has strongly opposed this plan, arguing that such a rollover would constitute a default in the eyes of the international credit ratings agencies and, as such, would undermine investor confidence and the euro itself.