Is the Greek debacle over?
It is becoming more and more apparent that whilst the Greek government has around €30 billion to hand in emergency financing there are growing concerns about the state of the country's debt. It is rumoured that the Greek authorities have requested emergency talks with the European Union and the IMF and it looks more and more likely that a drawdown of the €30 billion emergency funding will commence very soon. Why the change in strategy by the Greek authorities?
Over the last couple of days there has been a significant sell-off of Greek debt on the worldwide debt markets and the interest rate applicable to these bonds has increased markedly. As a consequence, it will become more and more expensive for the Greek authorities to refinance their debts hence the likelihood of beginning drawdown from the emergency funds, where the rate of interest is at a significant discount to the market rate.
However, more and more investors are now becoming aware that the drawdown of emergency funding and the public refinancing of the country's debt is just the first of a number of difficult steps to get the country back on track. There have been growing concerns about the Greek economy for some time and these are all now coming to fruition.
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