Business & Finance

Greek debt should not be restructured

BERLIN : Greece 's debt should not be restructured until the country must step up its reform efforts, European Central
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"If you start (restructuring) softly, for instance by extending the maturities of bonds, that changes little about the level of debt. At the same time efforts to adjust will weaken," Stark told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper in an interview for publication on Sunday.

"A hard debt cut would collapse the banking system and the economy too," Stark added.

"(Greece) needs to intensify its efforts," Stark also said. "The privatisation programme is meant to raise 50 billion euros by 2015 and one should be more ambitious here.

Copyright Reuters, 2011