S&P says future Greek leaders could decide to leave Eurozone
THERE is a one in three chance that a future Greek government would decide to leave the Eurozone, according to a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) ratings chief.
Though it was extremely unlikely that Greece would leave the currency bloc under its current government, led by Antonis Samaras, there is a “non-trivial” possibility that a future government would decide to do so, Mortiz Kraemer at S&P said in Tel Aviv yesterday.
“Some future government might decide that after all those efforts, after year after year after year of recession, falling living standards and rising unemployment, you might just try to break with what you’ve been trying for so long,” Kraemer said. He put the probability at “around” a third.
This came as Greece extended its debt buyback offer to 11 December, after it garnered only €26.5bn (£21.3bn) out of a hoped-for €30bn of bids from bondholders. On average, the Greek debt agency paid 33.4 per cent of face value for the bonds returned in the programme.