Greece sees finish line in race to slice debt
Greece’s race to slice euro107 billion ($140 billion) off its national debt entered the final stretch Thursday, with markets confident enough investors will accept to write down more than half of the value of their Greek bond holdings.
If too few investors agree and the swap fails, the crisis-hit country will likely default on its debt in less than two weeks when a big bond repayment is due, prompting renewed turmoil in financial markets and knocking confidence in the global economy.
But markets appeared optimistic that Greece would muster enough support. Greece’s stock exchange was up 1.4 percent, while the Stoxx 50 of leading European shares rose 1.2 percent. The euro was trading 0.7 percent higher at $1.322.