Greece might be given more time to repay its mounting debts, EU officials said on Tuesday. Greece’s debt has reached such proportions that questions are being raised as to whether the country will ever be able to repay it.
Last year, a European rescue package had already injected 110 billion euros (US$156.9 billion) into Greece’s ailing economy. But this hasn’t achieved the goal of resuscitating the Greek economy.
At present, the country still has a budget deficit of over 9 percent, which is 2 percent above the allowable limit agreed upon under the conditions of the rescue package. And it is three times higher than the maximum allowance for the budget deficits according to EU standards.
“If Greece makes all these efforts, then we must see if it is possible to make to a soft restructuring of Greek debt,” said the chairman of eurozone finance ministers Jean-Claude Juncker, according to the Eurotribune Web newspaper.
“I am strictly opposed to a major restructuring of Greek debt.”
On Tuesday, the EU finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund agreed on a 78 billion euro (US$111.3 billion) financial assistance package to Portugal.
