Countdown for Greek debt swap

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel and the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, will meet in Berlin tonight as pressure grows to complete the Greek debt swap needed to put a rescue plan in place.

The deal, hammered out by EU leaders, Greek officials and the nation’s creditors in October, called for bondholders to accept a 50% cut in the face value of their Greek debt, with a goal of reducing Greece’s borrowings to 120% of GDP by 2020.

More than two months after the accord was announced, creditors and authorities still need to agree on the coupon and maturity of the new bonds to determine the losses investors would suffer.