Eurozone finance ministers will on Monday decide what terms they will accept on a Greek debt restructuring after talks going into the weekend failed to reach agreement, reports Reuters. The mood in Athens was tense on Sunday night, says the FT, after it became clear that an outline agreement on cutting Greece’s debt by €100bn could not be reached ahead of Monday’s meeting of the finance ministers in Brussels. Private owners of Greek debt have made their “maximum” offer for the losses they are willing to accept, the bondholders’ lead negotiator has said, implying that any further demands could kill off a “voluntary” deal and trigger a default. Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Finance, said he remained “hopeful and quite confident” the two sides could reach a deal that would prevent a full-scale Greek default when a €14.4bn bond comes due on March 20. The NY Times says Germany and the IMF have continued to insist that the longer-term bonds that would replace the current securities must carry yields in the low 3 per cent range, citing unnamed officials involved in the negotiations on Sunday, but Mr Dallara told Greece’s Antenna network that 3.8 to 4 per cent was the best deal that could be done in a voluntary haircut arrangement. Meanwhile, there was speculation about the circumstances surrounding Mr Dallara’s departure from Athens early on Saturday, says Greece’s Ekathimerini newspaper. The IIF said that Mr Dallara’s departure had been planned and insisted that there had been no breakdown in talks on the debt swap, dubbed PSI for private sector involvement. But the newspaper says Antenna quoted sources as saying that the IIF chief had met with officials of the French and German finance ministries at the Paris Club on Saturday night for a “secret dinner” where the Greek debt swap issue was allegedly discussed.
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