How much Greece owes to international creditors

Published Sun, Jun 28, 2015 · 11:28 PM

[BRUSSELS] Greece, which may default on an International Monetary Fund debt repayment due on Tuesday after talks with creditors broke down, owes its official lenders 242.8 billion euros (S$361.6 billion), according to a Reuters calculation based on official data, with Germany by far the largest creditor.

That figure includes loans made under two bailouts from European governments and the IMF since 2010 - worth a nominal 220 billion euros so far, of which some has been repaid - as well as Greek government bonds held by the European Central Bank and national central banks in the euro zone.

Private investors hold 38.7 billion euros of Greek government bonds following a major write-down and debt swap in 2012 that reduced the Greek debt stock by 107 billion euros and the value of private holdings by an estimated 75 per cent.

The Greek government has also issued 15 billion euros in short-term Treasury bills, mostly to Greek banks.

Here is a breakdown of the country's foreign debt stock: IMF - Greece was promised a total of 48.1 billion euros by the IMF, of which 16.3 billion was still to come by March 2016 if Athens successfully completed the second economic adjustment programme.

It had serviced and repaid loans on time up to this month, when it used an obscure IMF provision to bundle together four payments totalling 1.6 billion euros for payment by the end of June. The older IMF loans carry an interest rate of 3.5 per cent, higher than the euro zone rescue fund charges.

ECB

The ECB owns roughly 18 billion euros of Greek bonds, which would probably be worth a fraction of their face value should the country leave the euro zone, with 6.7 billion euros maturing in July and August.

Beyond a default on Greece's national debt, any exit of Greece from the euro zone would lumber the European Central Bank with a huge bill for lost credit. ECB President Mario Draghi recently said that Greek banks had tapped 118 billion euros of central bank liquidity.

That includes 89 billion in what is known as Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA). That remains the responsibility of the country's central bank but only if Greece stays in the euro. Were it to leave, the bill would rebound on other euro countries, including Germany.

In addition about 45 billion euros of banknotes in Greece represents another liability, being a claim that the wider Eurosystem of central banks would be obliged to honour.

THE EURO ZONE

Euro zone governments gave Greece 52.9 billion euros in bilateral loans under the first bailout agreed in 2010, known as the Greek Loan Facility. Under the second bailout agreed in 2012 Athens has so far received 141.8 billion euros from the euro zone's financial rescue fund. It had been due a further 1.8 billion euros by June 30 if it met conditions but barring major surprises that is off the table.

Of the biggest euro zone members, Germany's exposure for the two bailouts totals 57.23 billion euros, France's is 42.98 billion, Italy's is 37.76 billion and Spain's 25.1 billion. That is in addition to their contributions to the IMF loans, commensurate with their respective quotas in the global lender.

Euro zone countries have already extended the maturities of their loans to Greece from 15 to 30 years and reduced the interest rates on some to just 0.5 basis points above their borrowing cost. They also granted Greece a 10-year moratorium on interest payments on the second bailout loan from the euro zone rescue fund.

Greece has asked for further debt relief from the Europeans, a move supported by the IMF. But euro zone governments have said they would only discuss that if Athens further tightens its budget.

REUTERS

Read more on the Greek crisis here

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