New analysis of IMF figures, released by the Jubilee Debt Campaign, show that almost all of the money lent by the IMF, European governments and the European Central Bank to Greece has been used to pay off reckless lenders, with less than 10% of it reaching the Greek people.
Since 2010, the IMF, European governments and the European Central Bank have lent €252 billion to Greece. Over the same period, €232.9 billion has been spent on debt payments, bailing out Greek banks and paying ‘sweeteners’ to speculators to get them to accept the 2012 debt restructuring. This means less than 10% of the money has been used for anything else.
In 2010, virtually all Greek government debt was owed to private entities such as banks. Today 78% is owed to the public sector, primarily people in other Eurozone countries, but also throughout the world through the IMF’s loans.
Tim Jones, economist at the Jubilee Debt Campaign said:
“European and Greek banks have been bailed out, whilst a debt has been left with the Greek people. This is the same unjust response to a financial crisis as happened across much of the developing world in the 1980s and 1990s. Debt needs to be cancelled, and we need a new process for dealing with debt crises so that lenders do not continue to be bailed out, leaving the cost with the public, and incentivising more reckless lending and turmoil.”
The figures are included in a new ‘Six key facts about Greek debt briefing’ released by the Jubilee Debt Campaign ahead of the Greek elections on 25 January.
Syriza, who are leading in the polls, are proposing a conference to agree cancellation of debt to reduce it to a fair level. This is along the lines of the London conference in 1953, which agreed to cancel half of Germany’s debt, and make repayments on the other half contingent on Germany making enough money from trade with the rest of the world to be able to pay them.
The combination of the crashing of the economy and the bailout loans means Greek government debt has grown from 133% of GDP in 2010 to 174% today.
Read more
- ‘Six key facts about Greek debt’ briefing
- How Europe cancelled German’s debt, Jubilee Debt Campaign’s briefing on the precedent of the London conference in 1953