Financial Mirror (Cyprus)

Germany made more than out of Greek crisis

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Between its loans to Athens and its debt buying programmes, Germany has cashed in to the tune of EUR 1.34 bln since the beginning of the Greek crisis. EURACTIV’s partner La Tribune reports.

Germany’s finance ministry has published details of the profits it has made on loans to Greece: EUR 1.34 bln since 2009, according to reports by German daily Süddeutsch­e Zeitung.

A dig into the detail revealed that the German developmen­t bank KfW has taken some EUR 393 mln in interest payments on a loan of EUR 15.2 bln that it made to Athens in 2010. Between 2010 and 2012, a state debt-buying scheme by the eurozone’s central banks brought the Bundesbank a profit of EUR 952 mln.

The other eurozone members had agreed to hand any profits back to the Greek central bank. But the pay-back operation was brought to a halt in 2015 for political reasons, according to French paper Les Echos, particular­ly because of tensions between Alexis Tsipras’ freshly elected government and the Troika.

In displaying its good will at implementi­ng the reforms and austerity measures demanded by its creditors, Athens had hoped to encourage its EU partners to start this money flowing again.

Despite the efforts of the Greek government to satisfy the demands of its creditors, notably by running a budget surplus above and beyond its objectives and by adopting ever more austerity measures, Berlin approach.

Tsipras’ government has been calling for debt relief in order to restore confidence with a view to a return to the debt markets. After eight years of crippling austerity, economic growth is refusing to take off in Greece.

The IMF recognised this fact and even said it would only

still

refuses to soften

its contribute to the next tranche of aid if the Greek debt is cut.

But faced with the categorica­l refusal of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, the Fund was forced to back down. Without its latest injection of cash, Greece would have defaulted on a loan repayment due in July. The Fund does not want to increase its participat­ion until the other EU countries are ready to make concession­s.

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