The head of the Eurogroup on
Thursday dismissed Greek hopes of getting a "friendlier" bailout
offer if voters reject the current one in Sunday's referendum.
Jerouen Dijsselbloem was speaking to the Dutch parliament
shortly after Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said he
would quit if the Yes vote prevailed.
Meanwhile Standard & Poor's came out with a prediction that
Greece's exit from the eurozone could cost Italy an extra 11
billion euros to service its debt due to sharply higher interest
rates.
The ratings agency said Italy would be the eurozone country
to face the "biggest" rise in interest costs in the case of a
'Grexit'.
It forecast this could cost the eurozone as a whole an
extra 30 billion euros in the 2015-2016 period.
And the International Monetary Fund said Greece needs fresh
funding of 50 billion euros ($56 billion) to meet its debt
obligations up till 2018.
Greece's finances have deteriorated because of a failure to
enact needed reforms, the IMF said.
Instead of a forecast in 2014 that the debt-to-GDP ratio
would fall to 128%, the debt is back on course to reach 150% by
2010, the IMF said.
Dijsselbloem told the Dutch MPs that it will be "incredibly
difficult" to offer a third bailout plan if Greeks vote No to
the creditors' current proposals.
"If the result is No, how can you accept a programme?" he
said.
The statement was an indirect response to Varoufakis's
announcement he would resign if the Yes vote won but that if the
No vote prevailed then talks would immediately resume with the
country's creditors.
Dijsselbloem said the Greek government was "wrong" if it
thought that a No to would bring "a better package, less
tough, more friendly".
He said that in the meantime the Greek economic situation
had got a lot worse, making any new bailouts much more
difficult.
The latest opinion polls, meanwhile, showed the Yes vote
still ahead in the campaign, but its lead over the Nos narrowing
significantly.
Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras has urged his beleaguered
country to vote No, sending a clear anti-austerity signal to
Europe.
In contrast to Djisselbloem, Tsipras said a No win would
lead to a "better agreement".
In announcing his intention to quit, in an interview with
Bloomberg TV, Varoufakis also said his government would sign no
deal that does not involve a restructuring of Greece's debt.
"I'll hand in my resignation if the Yes vote wins," he
said.
"We will not sign any agreement with out the restructuring
of the debt".
He added that if the No vote wins, "we will resume
negotiations immediately".
S&P also said there is approximately a "50%" probability
that Greece leaves the eurozone.
It added that the eventual impact of the so-called "Grexit"
would be "serious" for Greece but "contained" for the remaining
eurozone members.
Also on Thursday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella
said he hoped Greece might quickly find a solution to its
present economic crisis within the framework of the European
Union.
"We hope that Greece might quickly find a balanced
agreement for resuming a path of stability and growth within the
hive of the European Union, to which Athens belongs," Mattarella
said.
Greek voters are almost evenly split heading into the
referendum in three days that European leaders said could plunge
the country "into economic darkness" as Kathimerini online
reports.
A GPO poll cited by euro2day.gr said 47% leaned toward a
Yes vote, an endorsement of austerity and the international
bailout.
The No camp, the government's position rejecting those
terms, was 43%.
The margin of error in the survey of 1,000 people was 3.1
percentage points.
GPO said later, however, that the survey contained
"incomplete" data and threatened legal action against those
citing it.
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