Tag: greece

Claire Jones ECB profit redistribution: does the buck stop with Greece?

February 21, 2012 5:44 pm by Claire Jones

The European Central Bank has now agreed to distribute the profits on its Greek government debt holdings. But Mario Draghi has been adamant that no similar deal will be offered to Lisbon, or indeed Dublin.

Earlier this month, Mr Draghi said any ECB offer on Greek debt was “unique” and that the central bank did not want to repeat the experience.

But will Portuguese or Irish taxpayers buy the ECB president’s line?

On the evidence of a press conference in Brussels today with an understandably careworn Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, it appears not.

Continue reading: “ECB profit redistribution: does the buck stop with Greece?”

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Posted in European Central Bank |

Ralph Atkins ECB watching (part II)

September 7, 2011 3:28 pm by Ralph Atkins

The eurozone debt crisis will overshadow the European Central Bank’s monetary policy decision making on Thursday. It is fighting on several fronts. I posted earlier on the wording on inflation risks and interest rates. Here is what Jean-Claude Trichet, president, might say on other topics. As ever, there is always room for surprises…

Continue reading: “ECB watching (part II)”

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Ralph Atkins ECB warns against Greek restructuring ‘suicide’

May 10, 2011 11:24 am by Ralph Atkins

Another barrage of warnings this morning from European Central Bank policymakers about the dangers of a Greek debt restructuring. Jürgen Stark, executive board member, told Bavarian radio that Greece was “not insolvent” and that a restructuring “wouldn’t be a solution to the problems that Greece needs to overcome”. But Athens should not assume international bail outs were a “bottomless well” he warned.

A different – and novel - argument was made by Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, his board colleague, the gist of which was that eurozone governments should not allow themselves to be pushed around by financial markets.

Continue reading: “ECB warns against Greek restructuring ‘suicide’”

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Posted in European Central Bank |
From FT.com April 13, 2011

Greece needs time to convince international investors about its reform programme and may not be able to return to financial markets next year as planned, its finance minister has admitted.

George Papaconstantinou’s comments in a Financial Times interview highlight how Greece continues to struggle to turn its economy round almost a year after the launch of an €110bn European Union and International Monetary Fund bail-out. They may fuel speculation that European leaders will have to find fresh ways of alleviating Greece’s debt problems to avert a default scenario.

Greece’s budget plans are fully funded this year but Athens will have to raise between €25bn-€30bn on financial markets in 2012 – a step that would mark the first stage of its international rehabilitation. But Mr Papaconstantinou suggested that goal was in doubt and the timetable would not become clearer until an EU-IMF agreement had been struck for Portugal, the latest victim in the eurozone debt crisis. “A judgment cannot be made before the summer and before Portugal closes its deal,” he said.

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ESM prompts further S&P cuts to Portugal, Greece

March 29, 2011 4:06 pm by Emma Saunders

Deja vu? No, ratings agency Standard and Poors has cut Portugal’s credit rating for the second time in less than a week, this time one notch to BBB-, leaving the rating with a negative outlook. Last week the agency cut by two notches – the most it could reasonably cut, given an explicit indication that they would be “unlikely” to cut by more. The agency left the rating on negative creditwatch, but that is usually interpreted to mean a further cut is likely in three months, not three days.

Greek ratings, meanwhile, have been cut deeper into junk territory with a two notch downgrade to BB-. The rating remains on negative creditwatch meaning a further cut is likely if there is no improvement; typically, that would be within three months, but in the current climate, who knows?

In both cases, the downgrades have been prompted by the structure of the permanent eurozone rescue fund, the ESM, which was confirmed at the end of last week by eurozone leaders. Two things in particular. One is the issue of subordination

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Default, not bail-out, should top euro agenda

March 24, 2011 3:10 pm by Emma Saunders

Cast your mind back to the good old days, when a high yield meant 6 per cent and nervous market talk might culminate in whispers of a bail-out. Compare and contrast with the situation now, where two states have long since passed the point of bail-out and there is real and present danger of a default.

Much focus is on Portugal, lined up somewhat unwillingly for the next cash injection. It must make an unappealing prospect as two already-medicated patients have just taken a sharp turn for the worse. Yields on Irish bonds rose nearly an entire percentage point during trading yesterday to touch 10.7 per cent. As a reminder, Irish yields were about 8 per cent at the time of the bail-out. And it bears repeating: Irish yields are above bail-out levels even though Ireland has been bailed out. Ditto Greece.

Eurozone leaders are due to begin a scheduled meeting in Brussels about now. They’ll have plenty to discuss. A possible bail-out of Portugal will certainly be on the agenda but it might not make the top of the list. After all,

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Eurozone’s bold proto-agreement

March 14, 2011 12:30 pm by Emma Saunders

If it is approved, the nascent agreement reached in the small hours of Saturday morning will address many of the symptoms of the eurozone’s disease. Note, though, that the fundamental issue of bond haircuts was not addressed. Euro leaders’ hard work leaves them on target for what was a very tight March 24/25 deadline. Measures include:

  • Increase the effective lending capacity of the EFSF from ~ €250bn to €440bn. The Fund already had €440bn at its disposal in theory, but needed to hold back a proportion in order to issue AAA-rated debt. Discussions are ongoing on how to achieve this.
  • Give the EFSF the right, “as an exception”, to intervene in primary debt markets – though with such strict conditionality that some analysts say this will make little effective difference. The right, which will extend to EFSF successor, the ESM, is not a full substitute for the ECB’s bond-buying programme, since the ECB buys bonds in both the primary market (government auctions) and secondary market (resale of already-issued bonds).
  • Lower the rates charged by the EFSF on bail-out loans to take into account debt sustainability of recipient countries. Rates should remain above facility’s funding costs and in line with IMF pricing principles.
  • Specifically, for Greece: reduce the interest rate on rescue loans from 5.25 to 4.25 per cent and increase the average maturity of Greek bail-out loans from 4 to 7.5 years.
  • €500bn funding confirmed for the ESM, EFSF successor.
  • Further explore the idea of a financial transaction tax.

Continue reading: “Eurozone’s bold proto-agreement”

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Posted in EFSF, European Central Bank |

Eurozone yields mock bail-out talk

March 9, 2011 2:45 pm by Emma Saunders

A look at the data on Greece and Ireland should stay the hands of policymakers keen to bail-out Portugal. If those two bail-outs were intended to reassure markets, they have failed. Clarity on bondholder rights might be a better target.

Ireland was bailed out in November. Despite knowing €85bn is on tap, markets priced Ireland’s ten year cost of debt at a record high yesterday: government bonds trading in the secondary market closed at 9.39 per cent. See green line on chart, right. (Note: this number does not affect the Irish government directly since they do not finance their loans from the resale market: it is a proxy for the rate the government would have to pay to borrow from the market at auction.) These record levels are more than a percentage point higher than levels that prompted the bail-out, and just higher than the previous record which occurred post bail-out (since yields, bizarrely, rose).

Greece was bailed out in May. But Greece’s ten year cost of debt touched a record 12.82 per cent during yesterday’s trading. Their ten year debt closed at 12.68 per cent, second only to a rough patch in January. Bail-outs are useful when there’s a temporary cashflow problem – but continued and rising market stress should tell us that something else is at play.

Continue reading: “Eurozone yields mock bail-out talk”

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Posted in European Central Bank |

Ralph Atkins The ECB and Greek collateral

March 7, 2011 4:45 pm by Ralph Atkins

Moody’s, the credit rating agency, has created a political storm in Athens by downgrading Greece’s government bonds by a further three notches. At B1 (down from Ba1), Greek bonds now “lack the characteristics of a desirable investment,” in Moody’s terminology.

But they are still acceptable for use as collateral in European Central Bank liquidity operations. Last May, the ECB suspended the minimum credit rating requirement for Greek debt – on the grounds that it had confidence in the country’s economic rescue plans, whatever the credit rating agencies thought. In other words, Greek banks could continue to obtain unlimited liquidity from the ECB, using their government bonds as collateral.

What is more, Moody’s announcement does not change anything in terms of the “haircut” – or discount – applied by the ECB to Greek bonds when calculating how much liquidity banks can obtain.

Continue reading: “The ECB and Greek collateral”

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Posted in European Central Bank |

Portugal & Spain quiver as Greece downgraded

March 7, 2011 9:36 am by Emma Saunders

Moody’s rating agency has just downgraded Greece’s government bonds to B1 from Ba1, placing the debt on negative outlook, meaning further downgrades are likely. The move takes Greek debt from borderline junk to “highly speculative” territory.

Fitch and S&P still rate Greek debt three notches higher at BB+ (the equivalent of Ba1, Moody’s previous rating), but this might not last long. Fitch last downgraded on January 14 and has a negative outlook on the rating, while S&P last downgraded in December but has the rating on credit watch negative (meaning a downgrade is imminent, if there is no material improvement).

The move does not bode well for Portugal or Spain, both of whom were placed on review for downgrade at similar times, in December of last year. Credit reviews are typically three months long, meaning we should hear from Moody’s on Spain before March 15, and Portugal before March 21. Fitch placed Spain’s AA+ rating on negative outlook on Friday, joining S&P (AA, negative outlook) and Moody’s (Aa1, watch for downgrade). Portugal’s ratings (currently from A- to A+) are also on negative outlook or watch for downgrade with all three main ratings agencies.

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Chris Giles Chris Giles has been the economics editor of the Financial Times since 2004. Based in London, he writes about international economic trends and the British economy. Before reporting economics for the Financial Times, he wrote editorials for the paper, reported for the BBC, worked as a regulator of the broadcasting industry and undertook research for the Institute for Fiscal Studies. RSS

Ralph Atkins, Frankfurt bureau chief, has been writing about European economics and politics for the Financial Times for more than 20 years following an economics degree from Cambridge. He has been watching the European Central Bank and eurozone economies since 2004. He has previously worked in London, Bonn, Berlin, Jerusalem and Brussels. RSS

Robin Harding is the FT's US economics editor, based in Washington. Prior to this, he was based in Tokyo, covering the Bank of Japan and Japan's technology sector, and in London as an economics leader writer. Robin studied economics at Cambridge and has a masters in economics from Hitotsubashi University, where he was a Monbusho scholar. Before joining the FT, Robin worked in asset management and banking. RSS

Claire Jones is Money Supply economics team writer, based in London. Before joining the Financial Times, she was the editor of the Central Banking journal and CentralBanking.com. Claire studied philosophy and economics at the London School of Economics. RSS

James Politi is US economics and trade correspondent for the Financial Times, based in Washington DC. He joined the Washington bureau in January 2008 following four and a half years as US deals correspondent covering M&A and private equity. James Politi joined the FT in London in 2000 with an MSc at the London School of Economics, and undergraduate degrees from Georgetown University and the University of Florence. RSS

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