Greek officials have told Reuters that Athens is eyeing a multi-billion-euro cash fund to meet debt repayments following August’s planned departure from the country’s bailout program.
The news agency quoted an unnamed Greek official saying the €19 billion ($23 billion) buffer will help to assure markets Athens will be able to cover its debt maturities for 18 months without external help.
“This will function as a cash cushion, it will show that debt servicing needs are already covered for a significant period after the end of the bailout,” the official told Reuters.
Greece faces about €28 billion of maturing debt up to the end of 2019 and can cover one third of that amount with the last two loan instalments it got from its third bailout.
The rest will be raised from markets by issuing three new government bonds, another official told Reuters.
“We plan to issue a new bond in the weeks after the Eurogroup’s approval of the third (bailout) review. There is no final decision on the maturity, but it will probably be a seven-year bond,” the official said.
-End of an era?
The Greek government is confident it will exit from the era of bailouts and become financially independent by August 2018.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Monday that the “end of the bailout era is now near”.
Speaking at a parliamentary debate prior to the adoption of series of controversial economic reforms required to successfully conclude the third review of the bailout he said:
“Everybody is aware that with the conclusion of the third review, we are one step before the end of the program and the final end of the memoranda.”
However, in an interview published by Greek newspaper Kathimerini on Sunday, Thomas Wieser, outgoing president of the Eurogroup Working Group hinted at future supervision of Greek economic affairs beyond the end of the bailout.
“If there is a further debt relief after the end of the program, then it is sensible to reach a further agreement,” he was quoted as saying.
Wieser was also reluctant to endorse the Greek government’s pledge of a clean exit and return to the markets in August.
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