EU: Wants "Sustainable" Interest Rate On Ireland Bailout

Scofflaw

-Interest rates on Ireland's bailout fund from the European Union and International Monetary Fund should be "sustainable," the European Commission said Friday, adding that the latest round of taxpayer assistance for stricken banks should be enough to convince markets that the country is sorting out its finances.

"We support the best possible formula for the interest rate to be as light as possible for the facility, for every country, we're not just talking about Ireland here," a spokesman for EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters. "It would help protect sustainability of the debt."

Ireland's new coalition government, formed last month, is in talks to renegotiate the interest rate of almost 6% on EUR67.5 billion in bailout loans from the EU and IMF agreed in November.

Source

A hopeful sign, but unfortunately the Commission is only in charge of administering the funds - the rates are set by multilateral horsetrading in the European Council.

cordially,
Scofflaw

beeftotheheels

Scofflaw wrote: »

Source

A hopeful sign, but unfortunately the Commission is only in charge of administering the funds - the rates are set by multilateral horsetrading in the European Council.

cordially,
Scofflaw

This is positive - the ECB and the Commission are now in favor or relaxing the terms of the loan which gives the heads of State some cover when going back to their electorates - it is no longer just spoiled little Ireland (whom I am sure their electorates are annoyed with) looking for a lower rate.

Sea Sharp

My take on the bailout interest rate fiasco is that the French and Germans are playing hard ball so as to discourage Spain and Portugal from seeking similar financial aid. This is an issue that I can't see being resolved in 2011 but ultimately it's in Europe's best interest to assist us rather than punish us.

Treehouse72

This entire process is clearly moving towards structured default some time in the next 2 or 3 years. Nobody can say that yet - not Noonan, not Merkel and not Trichet - but the mood music is clear I think. It may be dressed up as something less than default, but one way or other, Irish taxpayers will not end up footing the bill for the majority of the bank debt. Some of it probably, but not all of it, which makes all of this anguish about the bondholders and interest rates and all that a bit pointless.

In the meantime, Europe is telling us to keep our heads down, cut the deficit and it'll get massaged in 2013. I think that would be a good idea, as long as we can find that pesky €18b somewhere. That's quite enough to be worrying about without worrying about stuff that'll get fixed anyhow.

[Jackass]

Sadly, we've missed the boat on this.

As mentioned, the major players have identified that the pot is empty, too many resources have gone in to the blackhole known as Ireland, and they can't afford another majot bailout, and they are not going to go easy on us one bit.

We're in serious trouble now.

I feel like the previous Government was in such a panic and didn't know what to do, they didn't know what kind of deal they were getting, they guarenteed a banking system and then just realised that they had bankrupt the state, and they took whatever they could get...no room for negotiation, just save our souls...

Now we're fu(ked and it's too late for this Goverment..

I think maybe in a decade we can fix it, but for now, we're Europes bitch and we gotta pay our pimp.