Sailing into uncharted legal waters

The burden other eurozone states could bear gives them a powerful incentive to keep Greece in the currency club, writes Paul Carrel

A GREEK exit from the eurozone could expose the ECB and the currency bloc it seeks to protect to hundreds of billions of euro in losses, landing Germany and its partners with a crippling bill.

A Greek departure would take Europe into uncharted legal waters. The burden other eurozone states could bear gives them a powerful incentive to keep Greece in the currency club. With most of Greece’s private creditors having taken heavy writedowns as part of the country’s second €130bn bailout, it is estimated that the ECB, IMF, and eurozone nations hold approaching €200bn of its debt.