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4/11/10

Europe Offers Greece $61Bln Loan

European governments on Sunday offered debt-laden Greece a rescue package worth as much as 45 billion euros ($61 billion) at below-market interest rates as they try to end Greece's fiscal crisis and restore confidence in the euro. Germany also abandoned an earlier demand that Greece pay market rates.

Forced into action by a surge in Greek borrowing costs to an 11-year high, euro-region finance ministers said they would offer as much as 30 billion euros in three-year loans in 2010 at about 5 percent. That is less than the current three-year Greek bond yield of 6.98 percent. Another 15 billion euros would come from the IMF.

"This is a step of clarification that markets are waiting for — it shows there is money behind this," Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters in Brussels after chairing the ministers' conference call. "The initiative for activating the mechanism rests with the Greek government."

For more: Europe Offers Greece $61Bln Loan | Business | The Moscow Times

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