Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Many have stated that Greece’s sovereign debt burden is unsustainable and various economists over the past month stressed the need for a Greek debt relief.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde insisted recently that Greece’s burden is unsustainable and warned that the Fund will not participate without ‘concrete agreement’ on debt relief. "I remain firmly of the view that Greece’s debt has become unsustainable," Lagarde said, calling on Europe to make "concrete commitments [...] to provide significant debt relief, well beyond what has been considered so far".
A three-page document by the European Institutions negotiating Greece’s third bailout programme, which has been seen by the Wall Street Journal, pointed to serious concerns for the Greek debt sustainability that will require mitigating measures - a step many eurozone governments have been reluctant to take. According to a Bloomberg survey of 42 European economists that was conducted August 7-14, a whopping 92% of respondents said Greece should receive some form of easing of its debt burden.
A similarly large share of respondents - 90% - simultaneously expect Greece to remain a euro member state through the end of 2016. Similarly, in an opinion article, the think tanks heads Marcel Fratzscher (DIW Berlin President), Armin von Bogdandy (Director of Max Planck Institute) and Guntram B. Wolff (Director of Bruegel) argued that there can be no confidence and no growth in Greece without a solution to the debt problem.Read also:
