Berlin ruled out haircut despite IMF pressure, Stournaras says
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras has said he came under pressure from IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and the head of the fund’s mission in Greece Poul Thomsen to ask eurozone leaders to accept a haircut on their bailout loans, but such move was ruled out by German Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
“Poul and Lagarde said I had to [stand] by their side,” Stournaras said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday.
“I said: ‘OK, but if I come by your side, it is what would really help Greece, but it’s something which is totally out of the question.’ Schaeuble told me: ‘Yannis, forget it.’ So it cannot be done, so what can I do?”, Stournaras told the FT.
It was not clear when the conversation between the two ministers took place.
