Deals
Euro Area Weighs Greek Loan Buyout, as IMF Demands Concessions
- European Stability Mechanism may look to buy bilateral loans
- Eurogroup meets next week to discuss Greek bailout review
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Euro-area officials are weighing a proposal to purchase loans that member states made to Greece, as the International Monetary Fund reiterated calls today to ease the nation’s debt burden.
Senior finance ministry officials from the currency bloc held a conference call on Wednesday evening to discuss ways to make Greece’s 321 billion euros ($360 billion) of obligations sustainable, according to people with knowledge of the talks. One option would be for the European Stability Mechanism, the euro-area’s financial backstop, to purchase the first loans nations made to Greece, allowing the country to benefit from the ESM’s concessionary maturities and interest rates, the people said, asking not to be named because the discussions are private.