BRUSSELS (AP) — Greece’s finance minister believes his country will be able to reach a deal with private bondholders to cut its debt, despite tougher terms set by its eurozone partners.
Evangelos Venizelos said Tuesday “We have the green light from the Eurogroup to close the deal with the private sector in the next few days.”
Greece is in talks with private creditors to swap their existing bonds with news ones of a lower value and interest rates.
On Monday night, eurozone ministers decided to cap interest rates on the new bonds below 4 percent, less than the private creditors would like.
The bond swap will cut the face value of Greek bonds in half, thereby slicing some 100 billion off its debt, and push repayments far into the future.
