Financial Times: “Creditors to initiate Greek debt relief talks”

According to an article by the Financial Times, Greece’s creditors and the coalition government are set to begin discussions regarding debt relief.

The article points out that while the Samaras-Venizelos coalition government has invested a lot in achieving its primary surplus goals with regards to debt relief, IMF officers claim that Greece’s creditors and European partners have ruled out the possibility of cancelling the debts.

The Financial Times report explains that since the largest portion of the Greek public debt is in the hands of international creditors, any further “haircut” of the debt would mean immediate losses for European governments.

Now that Eurostat has confirmed Greece’s fiscal indexes, Greece will be in the position to request a debt restructure at the Eurogroup session on Thursday, as agreed upon at the Eurogroup session in November 2012.

However, the head of European analysis at the Eurasia Group risk consultancy Mujtaba Rahman commented that while Greece claims to have a surplus, Eurostat’s data indicates a deficit, which will undoubtedly affect any talks of debt relief.