Greece needs 40 pct of debt forgiven-German wiseman
Thu May 26, 2011 7:54am EDT
* Other 60 pct needs to be swapped for euro bonds
* Comprehensive solution needed for all periphery states
HAMBURG, May 26 (Reuters) -
Greece needs creditors to take a haircut of 40 percent and swap the remainder of its debt for some form of jointly-issued euro zone bonds as part of an overall package encompassing other struggling states, a German government advisor said.
"One needs a comprehensive concept that decides just how much debt states like Greece,
Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy can sustainably bear," said Peter Bofinger, an economist who sits on a five-person advisory panel known as the "wisemen".
"That requires an enormous effort, but it is necessary," he added, speaking to journalists in Hamburg on Wednesday evening.
Bofinger, generally considered to be a Keynesian, has supported a type of economic rebuilding programme akin to the Marshall Plan instituted in
Germany after the second world war.
The German government has said repeatedly that it does not want to go forward with restructuring of Greek debt in the near term although European policymakers continue to discuss some other form of "soft restructuring".
On Wednesday, he reaffirmed his calls for an investment plan to stimulate economic activity otherwise lost as a result of Greece's draconian austerity programme.
In an interview published on Thursday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also said Greece needed a mid- to long-term growth strategy.
"One puzzle piece could be EU investments in expanding the power grid to take stronger advantage of solar energy in Greece," he told Handelsblatt.
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Economisti ...