ECB’s Rueffer asks Athens to fulfill pledges
A representative of Greece’s international lenders said in an interview over the weekend that the review could be wrapped up within a reasonable time frame as long as Greece stuck to its reform program.
“The Greek government demonstrated a certain degree of commitment to delivering on its mandate to implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was agreed last August with the other euro-area governments,” the European Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Strategy division head Rasmus Rueffer said in an interview with Proto Thema newspaper.
“I trust that this commitment prevails and that the first review will be concluded within a reasonable time frame.”
Rueffer said that the ECB would consider reinstating a waiver of Greek bonds, which would mean letting Greek banks again swap their country’s government bonds for ultra-cheap ECB funding, and including the securities in the eurozone’s central bank bond purchasing scheme “once the conditions are right.”
He also said that the International Monetary Fund’s full participation in the Greek program would “be highly desirable.”
The IMF said last year it would wait to see the outcome of Greece’s debt relief talks with EU partners before agreeing to inject new cash as part of the country’s bailout program.
[Reuters]
