Greek PM promises no default
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has promised that his government will secure an agreement on restructuring its debt in time to avoid the country going bankrupt in late March.
Greece needs a deal with the private sector, the EU and the IMF to avoid a disorderly default when €14.5bn (£12bn) of bond redemptions are due on 20 March.
Talks in Washington collapsed on Friday afternoon but Papademos has signaled his intent to clinch a deal by dispatching the head of Greece’s debt agency and other senior advisers to meet IMF officials in the American capital.
“There is a little pause in these discussions. But I am confident that they will continue and we will reach an agreement that is mutually acceptable in time,” Papademos said according to a transcript of an interview with CNBC.
Negotiations stalled over the interest rate Greece will pay on new bonds it offers. A representative for creditors suggested the main stumbling block lay with the terms insisted on by foreign lenders who are keeping the country afloat with aid.
Greece is now in its fifth year of recession, has consistently missed its fiscal targets and is only being kept from default by bailout loans from European countries and the IMF.