Report that lenders have agreed to two-year extension for Greece denied
The European Commission and the German government have denied a newspaper report that Greece’s lenders have agreed to extend the time Athens has to complete its fiscal adjustment by two years.
“I am not in a position to confirm anything in the report,» said Simon O’Connor, a spokesman for Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, on Wednesday. «There is no agreement yet.»
The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Wednesday, in a report that mentioned a draft memorandum but cited no named sources, that Athens’ economic program will be extended until 2016 but it’s unclear how Greece would be financed beyond 2014.
But Steffen Kampeter, a German deputy finance minister, told Deutschlandfunk radio that Berlin is still waiting for a report from Greeces debt inspectors, and «everything before that is reading tea leaves.”
Top European Central Bank official Joerg Asmussen told Germany’s ARD television that theres still no final agreement between the debt inspectors and Greece.
[Combined reports]
