Greece’s Finance Minister said Tuesday that he welcomes a discussion on an extension of the repayment period of the 110 billion Euro bailout. However he warned that a general debt restructuring would be a catastrophe.
“Euro zone ministers will meet in the short term to make a final decision on the extension of the IMF-EU loans, which is a lot better than waiting for six months to examine the issue, even if all the Euro zone parliaments will have to approve the repayment extension,” George Papaconstantinou said in a live interview on privately owned Mega television station.
“Debt restructuring would be a catastrophe for Greek living standards, and it would hit the local banking system and therefore the domestic economy very hard, as well as the whole Euro zone,” said Papaconstantinou.
He stressed that “Europe and the Euro zone is completely determined to protect the single currency and the euro zone financial system,” and acknowledged that political developments in Greece slowed down reforms.
“Admittedly the recent regional elections and the cabinet reshuffle did slow the government΄s structural reforms down,” the Finance Minister said.
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