Home > News > Pressure Builds For Greece And Portugal Despite Bailouts

Pressure Builds For Greece And Portugal Despite Bailouts

Printer-Friendly Version of This Article! Email This Article to a Friend!
by Reuters

May 18, 2011

The International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday that Greece’s drive to shore up its troubled finances would fail unless it sharply accelerated its economic overhaul, and the European Central Bank hit back at suggestions that a debt restructuring might be the solution.

The International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday that Greece's drive to shore up its troubled finances would fail unless it sharply accelerated its economic overhaul, and the European Central Bank hit back at suggestions that a debt restructuring might be the solution.

European finance ministers broke a taboo this week and acknowledged for the first time that some form of restructuring might be required to ease Greece's debt burden, which at 150 percent of annual output is among the highest in the world.

They have said they could ask private creditors to agree to a voluntary extension of the maturities on their Greek debt but have also made clear that the priority is to ensure an acceleration of economic measures.

 



Go to the Top of the Page