This, apparently, is a story from Greek newspaper Kathimerini saying the country has uncovered €40bn of hidden debt:

The Google Translation reads something like this:

Hidden debt of 40 billion euros

The Committee on the reliability of the data set up by the Minister of Finance revealed hidden debt 40 billion. Hidden debt of 40 billion euros revealed the findings of the Committee on the reliability of statistics which has created a Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou . . .

HUGE Caveat: We do not read Greek. We do not understand the subtleties of the Greek language. We do not know if this is new or perhaps related to recent European Commission findings.

We can note, though, that market reaction has so far been muted.

The yield 10-year Greek Government bond seems to have spiked a little bit as of this (European) afternoon. CDS is at something like 384bps but that’s still lower than its recent record of 422bps.

Greece currently has about €254bn in outstanding debt, so an extra €40bn is a good 16 per cent increase.

Any Greek-speakers out there? Some help please?

This entry was posted by Tracy Alloway on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 16:25 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with government bonds, Greece, Sovereign debt. Edit this entry.