IMF offers tough solution to ESM for Greece

London

AS European finance ministers gathered in Brussels to decide on the next bailout payment to Greece, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has come up with a solution to reduce financing costs that may leave the bond market with indigestion.

The IMF suggested in a report that the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the euro area's crisis-fighting fund, sell 200 billion euros (S$308 billion) in long-dated bonds to lock in record-low borrowing costs. That would compete with governments from the Netherlands to Spain that recently boosted their multi-decade bond sales.