The dark clouds hanging over the eurozone have receded along with the threat of a Greek default, but the latest bailout for Athens might not be the last.
After nine long months of negotiations, a large majority of Greece’s private creditors agreed to a bond swap that will see them accept huge losses and wipe about 100 billion euros (US$131 billion) off Athens’ debt.
Eurozone finance ministers immediately unblocked part of a second aid package of 130 billion euros and were expected to approve the rest in the coming week.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde welcomed the debt deal as “an important step that will dramatically reduce Greece’s medium-term financing needs and contribute to debt sustainability.”
And US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said that thanks to the measures taken by Europe to tamp down the debt crisis, the continent no longer posed major risks to the global economy.
“We are not out of the woods, but we have taken an important big step,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.
The comments highlighted that the worst-case scenario — the debt crisis spreading to the rest of the world — was no longer expected.
The swap, which was taken up by 83.5 percent of Greece’s private creditors, was a key condition for the bailout to go forward, with the Greek parliament having already approved further spending cuts and reforms to liberalize the economy.
European leaders are now waiting for the IMF to say how much it will contribute to the second aid program.
Even within the 17-member eurozone, another spike in the financial crisis was seen as unlikely and contagion of Greece’s indebted neighbors as less probable.
Still, the second bailout which covers the period to the end of 2014 leaves Greece fragile and Athens might need to soon ask for more aid, diplomats warned.
Basing itself on a joint report by the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the IMF, the German news magazine Der Spiegel said Greece might need 50 billion euros in 2015.
A preliminary version of the latest report by the troika of EU, ECB and IMF did not expect Greece to return to the bond markets in 2015. However, Greece might need up to 50 billion euros between 2015 and 2020, and could be struggling to find the funds.
Schaeuble has warned German lawmakers, who voted on the aid packages, that they might have to look at helping out Greece again, but has not mentioned a figure.
And Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker has said: “Nobody should think Greece is going to be on its feet again quickly, but nobody should also think that Greece is getting back on its feet without our solidarity and without organized growth policy.”
Juncker warned in an interview last month that a third aid package might not be totally ruled out, but added: “We should not have as a starting assumption that a third program will be” needed.
Along the same line, a European government source said that a third package “seems quite logical” as there was only a small chance for Greece to return to the markets.
However, more aid will be less of a problem as the amount of money needed will not be the same, the source added.
The debt swap was aimed to reduce Greek debt to a sustainable level of about 120 percent of GDP by 2020, against 160 percent now. However, experts see even that reduced level as far too optimistic in a deteriorating economic environment.
The latest data released on Friday showed the Greek economy shrank by a worse than expected 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Based on the quarterly figures given, the Greek economy shrank by 6.9 percent last year. The economy was initially expected to shrink by 5.5 percent last year and by 2.8 percent this year, according to budget forecasts.
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