Greece says lenders closer to compromise on debt viability

The International Monetary Fund has relaxed its debt-cutting target for Greece and only a 10 billion euros ($13 billion) gap remains to be filled for a vital aid tranche to be paid, Greece’s finance minister said on Friday,according to Reuters.

But other sources involved in the talks cautioned that the funding gap was far bigger than that suggested by Greece and that the two sides were not on the verge of striking a deal to resolve the euro zone’s most intractable problem.

Greece’s finance minister signaled that a compromise was near by saying the International Monetary Fund had agreed to deem the country’s debt viable if it falls to 124 percent of GDP in 2020, giving ground on its earlier target of 120 percent.

The Euro group has already agreed on measures to reduce Greek debt to 130 percent of GDP in 2020, Yannis Stournaras said.

“That leaves a gap of 5-6 percentage points of GDP to be covered — about 10 billion euros,” he told reporters in Brussels.

The EU and IMF are considering bringing the debt down through a combination of interest rate cuts and extension of maturities on the country’s loans, a debt buyback and having the ECB forego profits on its Greek bond holdings, a Greek finance ministry official told Reuters.

Teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, Greece is increasingly frustrated that its lenders are still squabbling over a deal to unlock fresh aid despite the country pushing through unpopular austerity cuts that brought thousands on to the streets.

Athens says time is running out and that it needs its next tranches of almost 44 billion euros in aid to recapitalize banks and stabilize its recession-hit economy. Its next big debt repayment falls due in mid-December.

It expects the aid to be paid out in one installment, Greece’s government spokesman told Greek radio, playing down recent speculation that it could be dribbled out in bits.

The euro hit a three-week high against the dollar on growing optimism that Greece’s lenders were close to an agreement.

Euro zone finance ministers, the IMF and European Central Bank failed earlier this week to agree how to get the country’s debt down to a sustainable level and will have a third go at resolving the issue on Monday.

R. S