Commenting on the IMF’s leaked Debt Sustainability Analysis on Greece, Jonathan Stevenson of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said:
“The IMF’s new analysis reveals the fatal flaw at the heart of Sunday’s ‘deal’ on Greece. By refusing to include debt cancellation, European leaders have made it almost certain that Greece will be unable to repay these new bailout loans, if they happen.
Why throw €86 billion of good money after bad? Because European leaders are in a state of denial about where the Greek bailout funds went. It is their failure to be honest with their people that the bailouts mainly went to save European banks that lies behind the escalation of this crisis. Germans are pitched against Greeks, when in reality the people of all European countries are paying the costs of preserving the European banking system in 2010.
That’s why a true resolution of this crisis must involve some attempt to recover the costs of the bailouts from the financial institutions which benefited in the first place. The question of the debt – and the political difficulties of resolving it – are going to keep coming back until this is addressed.”
ENDS
Jubilee Debt Campaign is part of a global movement to break the chains of unjust debt, https://www.jubileedebt.org.uk
1. Reuters: Exclusive – Greece needs debt relief far beyond EU plans: secret IMF report, 14 July, http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/14/uk-eurozone-greece-imf-report-idUKKCN0PO1C920150714?irpc=932
2. At least 90% of the Greek bailout has paid off reckless lenders, Jubilee Debt Campaign, http://staging.jubileedebt.org.uk/press-release/least-90-greek-bailout-paid-reckless-lenders
3. Last week Jubilee Debt Campaign and Global Justice Now projected ‘Cancel Greek Debt’ and pictures of Angela Merkel as the three wise monkeys onto the German Embassy in London. Photos available via: http://staging.jubileedebt.org.uk/press-release/cancel-greek-debt-projected-on-german-embassy-in-london