ATHENS (Reuters) – Major banks and pension funds threw their weight behind Greece’s bond swap offer to private creditors, making it increasingly likely the deal will pass and clear the way for a bailout package to avert an immediate default. With the 2000 GMT deadline for acceptances nearing and holders of at least 57 percent of the total 206 billion euros in outstanding debt already committed, there appeared to be growing confidence in Athens that the exchange would go through. [...]
TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian shares struggled on Monday, with investors still nervous despite the formation of a new Greek unity government intent on avoiding imminent debt default. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei stock average (.N225) fell 0.5 percent. U.S. stock index futures opened higher after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and opposition leader Antonis Samaras agreed on a new coalition government to approve the bailout plan, which requires painful [...]
ATHENS (Reuters) – International lenders told Greece on Monday it must shrink its public sector and improve tax collection to avoid default within weeks as investors spooked by political setbacks in Europe dumped risky euro zone assets. Hours before a telephone conference between the Greek Finance Minister and senior officials of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, the IMF representative in Greece spelled out steps Athens must take to secure a vital 8 billion euro rescue payment next [...]
For years, many analysts have pointed to the fact that Greece, along with several other Euro Zone countries, was living far beyond its means in terms of the debt load that it was generating. With standard interest payments, Greece is already far beyond the point of being able to repay its debts through its own revenue streams. As a result, the only way for Greece to avoid default, ironically, was to simply borrow more money to cover the existing debt [...]