With Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras insisting the country will be on the road to recovery and return to the markets next year, a European Central Bank Governing Council Member said a third bailout – and possibly a fourth – will likely be necessary to keep the economy from collapsing.
In a radio interview Luc Coene, also the President of Belgium’s National Bank, said the Greek recovery is far off. “It’s clear that we are not … at the end of the Greek problem for the moment. We will have to make some extra efforts – certainly once, perhaps twice – we will see how the situation evolves,” he told Belgium radio station RTBL.
Coene said that Greece is seeing an improvement in its economic situation but it is “very slow” and it will take “a lot more time” to sort out Greece’s problems. However, he said the challenges in Greece no longer place the “whole edifice” of the Eurozone at risk and that a default, which at one point seemed likely, was no longer the case.
While it isn’t clear whether he was talking about two future separate aid packages for Greece or different ways to address the country’s cash shortfall and debt, his comments came as a growing number of European Union officials and the country’s international lenders think a third injection of $11-$14 billion will be needed. Greece is surviving on $325 billion in two rescue packages from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) that run out next year.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose country backs continued aid to Greece from which it is profiting – and has insisted on harsh austerity measures as well – last month was the first to suggest Greece would need a third bailout.
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