BERLIN (MNI) – The eagerly-awaited joint report on Greece by the
European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary
Fund will likely come by the end of the week, a German finance ministry
spokesman said Monday.

“We expect the report by the end of the week, maybe a bit later,
but presumably by the end of the week,” ministry spokesman Martin
Kotthaus said at a regular government press conference here.

If the report shows that Greece won’t regain access to capital
markets by next year, then Athens will have to think about measures to
improve the confidence of markets, including how to speed up its
privatisation of state assets, Kotthaus said.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at the same press
conference that Germany won’t participate in speculation about the
possible assessment of the report.

German weekly Der Spiegel claimed over the weekend that the report
would find that Greece had missed all of its promised fiscal targets. In
particular, the public deficit is higher than expected due to lower tax
revenues and higher expenditures, the magazine wrote.

EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told Der Spiegel in an
interview that a return of Greece to financial markets in 2012 “is a
very ambitious goal.” The current risk premia on Greek bonds would make
such a return “practically impossible,” he said.

In addition, a Greek debt “restructuring is not on the agenda,”
Rehn said in the interview. “This would have very negative consequences
for the Greek financial system and could trigger a chain reaction in the
rest of Europe,” he warned.

“We expect Athens to do its homework, for example, by lowering its
deficit and privatizing state assets worth some E50 billion,” Rehn told
the magazine.

ECB Executive Board member Juergen Stark in an interview with
German weekly Welt am Sonntag published over the weekend also urged
Greece to step up efforts to get its debt problem under control.

Greece owns state assets worth some E300 billion, Stark noted. “A
part of this must be used to lower the debt level.” The goal remains for
Greece to be able to fund itself via financial markets again next year,
Stark added.

He once again rejected the idea of restructuring of Greek debt,
warning that this would lead to a collapse of the country’s banking
system “and also its economy.”

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com

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