Greek FinMin says default out of the question

Updated: 2011-10-04 22:42

(Xinhua)

  Comments() Print Mail Large Medium  Small 分享按钮 0

ATHENS - Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Tuesday strongly rejected any prospect of a Greek default after returning from a Eurogroup meeting in Luxemburg.

"There is no such issue of a Greek default," underlined Venizelos, linking persistent media reports of a coming bankruptcy to "speculators within the global market system."

"The issue is not the disbursement of the sixth tranche of the bailout package to Greece, but the implementation of decisions taken by Greece and European counterparts to convince markets that there is a viable, realistic and effective solution," he said.

The minister said that Greece will not run out of cash by mid-November, when the vital 8 billion euro (10.55 billion U.S dollars) tranche is expected to be eventually released to Athens.

Initially Athens expected a "green light" for the installment in September and warned that without the tranche Greece could run out of cash to pay pensions and salaries by mid-October.

But EU/IMF auditors have not finished yet a report on Greek finances due to a prolonged debate over missed deficit reduction targets set under the first deal reached in May 2010 to help Greece overcome the debt crisis.

Moreover, European national assemblies have not winded up yet the ratification of a second aid package to Athens as agreed in the July 21 summit this summer.

Stressing that there was a "positive and friendly climate" for Greece during Monday's meeting, Venizelos noted that the Eurogroup sent three basic messages to the world - the European and Greek banking system are absolutely safe, Greece will remain a euro zone member country and there will not be a Greek default.

Monday's Eurogroup meeting also approved a bilateral agreement between Greece and Finland, under which Athens will issue 880 million euro (1.159 billion U.S dollars) bonds to Finland as collateral for its participation in the second bailout pact.

The climate was less friendly outside the Finance Ministry in central Athens, where Greek civil servants continued sit in protests and occupations of public buildings for a second day protesting the austerity and reform policies.

Due to the occupation of the main building that houses the minister's office the news conference on Tuesday was held in a nearby building.

Venizelos said during the briefing that there will be no need for an additional set of measures in the future to meet goals and overcome the crisis by 2014, as long as Greek citizens support the implementation of the measures announced so far, that include painful cutbacks on salaries, pensions and tax hikes.

Labor unions though called for mass participation of employees in the two general nationwide strikes scheduled for this week and October 19, pressing the government to focus on alternative ways to tackle the crisis.