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Tuesday 5 July 2011

Is the French government's 'ingenious' scheme to roll-over Greek debt still considered default?

A few days ago I heard someone on the BBC lauding the French government's ingenious scheme to roll-over Greek debt and incorporate an insurance scheme into the scheme. How clever the French are, how unlike the stupid evil Tories was the subtext.  Hmmm, I was this not too surprised to read in De Spiegel this:
'Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's warned on Monday that a proposal by French banks to roll over Greece's debt could be classified as a default, casting fresh doubts on plans to secure a bailout for the crisis-hit nation.

"It is our view that each of the two financing options described in the (French banks') proposal would likely amount to a default under our criteria," S&P said in a statement.'
Somehow I think that the EU supporting BBC will not give as much prominence to this news.

1 comment:

Mark Williams said...

S&P aere right of course. The Greeks are offered a "restructuring" because without it they will be unsable to service their outstanding borrowings, so as far as the credit agencies are concerned any buyer or holder of the debt should treat the Greeks as unable to avoid a default.