Advertise On EU-Digest

Annual Advertising Rates

5/26/11

ECB’s Paramo Says ‘Vienna’ Plan for Greece May Be Positive - by Emma Ross-Thomas

European Central Bank Executive Board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo said a Vienna Initiative- style debt-rollover program for Greece could be “positive,” even as it would only be part of the solution for the indebted nation.

“In general a Vienna Initiative is an interesting initiative, in that it is voluntary, and it means a vote of confidence in what the Greek authorities are doing,” Gonzalez- Paramo told reporters in Barcelona today.
The Vienna Initiative program developed in 2009 for eastern Europe was floated by Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn this month as an option for Greece. Such a plan would aim to persuade creditors to buy new bonds from the Greek government when existing ones mature.

“It’s a positive initiative in that it implies the interest of the private sector in the refinancing of the Greek economy,” Gonzalez-Paramo said. “It can only be part of the solution,” he said, as Greece must fulfill the conditions of its 110 billion-euro ($155 billion) bailout program.

The initiative was a key plank in the IMF-sponsored rescues of Hungary, Romania, Latvia and Serbia in 2009. Under the plan, banks including UniCredit SpA (UCG), Raiffeisen Bank International AG, and Societe Generale SA, then the biggest lenders in eastern Europe, publicly pledged to keep their units in those countries afloat by rolling over funding and providing fresh capital if needed.

For more: ECB’s Paramo Says ‘Vienna’ Plan for Greece May Be Positive - Bloomberg

No comments: