IMF predicts 120 bln euro aid package for Greece
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International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told German parliament that a bailout package for Greece would amount to between 100 billion euros (132 billion U.S. dollars) and 120 billion euros over three years, some German lawmakers said Wednesday after meeting with IMF officials.
German news television N-TV quoted Thomas Oppermann, a senior Social Democrats (SPD) lawmaker as saying that Strauss-Kahn noted the eurozone-plus-IMF aid package for debt-ridden Greece would be valued at 120 billion euros, which was much higher than a 45- billion-euro package pledged before.
"That way it's clear Germany's involvement in the Greek rescue will not be less than 25 billion euros," he said.
Juergen Trittin, a lawmaker of the Greens, told reporters in Berlin that the package would be operated in three years, in order to help Athens tide over the credit crisis.
Lawmaker Norbert Barthle from Christian Democrats (CDU) said both the IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) were opposed to including banks in the aid package for Greece.
However, Strauss-Kahn declined to comment on the figure and details of the plan after his meeting with ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet and German members of parliament. "If all this goes together rapidly, I'm really confident that the problem will be fixed. But if we don't fix it in Greece it may have a lot of consequences on the rest of the European Union," he said.
Germany, the Europe's largest economy and influential EU member state, was faced with the urgent call from Greece and other European partners for maintaining the EU's economic stability as well as a strong public opposition on "bailing out Athens with taxpayer's own money."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to meet Strauss-Kahn and Trichet on Wednesday, focusing on the solutions and bailout plans for Greece.
