Citi boss: ‘Negotiate a second bailout’

IRELAND should move to negotiate a second bailout agreement with the EU and IMF, one of Europe’s leading economists has advised.

Willem Buiter of international financial services giant, Citi, said instead of returning to the debt markets and borrowing money at a rate of 8%, Ireland should consider continuing borrowing from the troika at a rate of 3%.

He added, however, the Government should not attempt to secure a second bailout agreement “in a state of near panic, at the last minute”, but should negotiate a second loan agreement to have on standby in the event of not being able to borrow from the markets later this year.