Germany, France Back IMF Greek Role, Official Says

By James G. Neuger and Brian Parkin

March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Germany and France, paving the way for a European Union plan to aid Greece, agreed to involve the International Monetary Fund in any potential EU package for the debt-burdened nation, a German Finance Ministry official said.

The shift toward an IMF role before an EU summit that starts tomorrow came a week after euro-area finance ministers agreed to a European framework for a bailout. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who says her taxpayers shouldn’t pay for the region’s biggest budget deficit, then pushed for a greater IMF involvement. That reversal put her at odds with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called for an EU solution.

“It seems like a U-turn but it’s a sensible solution,” said Julian Callow, chief European Economist for Barclays Capital in London. “The IMF brings credibility and transparency and anything that gives investors a degree of comfort is good. The situation has been from the outset that there is no European mechanism in place to deal with a situation like this. This is what the IMF is there for.”

Franck Louvrier, a spokesman for Sarkozy, wasn’t available to comment and didn’t respond to e-mails.

With allies dropping their resistance to IMF involvement, Merkel agreed to sign on to a statement at the Brussels summit March 25-26 to create a mechanism to aid indebted members, including Greece, Die Welt reported yesterday. A government spokesperson denied that Merkel had agreed to an EU plan.

Greek Bonds Gain

The euro dropped to a 10-month low against the dollar and declined to a record against the Swiss franc. Europe’s single currency slipped as much as 0.7 percent to $1.3407 and fell as low as 1.4233 francs, the lowest since the euro started in 1999. Greek bonds gained yesterday, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note falling 14 basis points to 6.34 percent.

While German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble resisted IMF involvement, he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that turning to the Washington-based lender to help Greece “can and must only be an exception.”

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has been urging EU allies to give details of an aid package to shore up investor confidence and bring down borrowing costs. Greece’s 10-year bonds now yield twice comparable German debt. That financing premium led Papandreou to say on March 19 that Greece, which needs to sell about 10 billion euros ($14 billion) of bonds in coming weeks, is a step away from not being able to borrow and may need to turn to the IMF if European aid isn’t forthcoming.

Three Conditions

Merkel set three conditions for supporting EU assistance another German official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. Aid would be made available only if Greece couldn’t raise funds in financial markets, the IMF makes a substantial contribution and EU sanctions against deficit-limit violators are stiffened 使頑強,使堅定;使強硬.

“The euro area’s ability to impose the rules that it already has have been inadequate,” David Mackie, chief European economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co said. “In some sense you have to bring someone in who does a better job of it. The existing rule book has failed otherwise we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

French pleas for a European package led Michael Meister, parliamentary group finance spokesman for Merkel’s party, to say in an interview: “If France wants an agreement on aid for Greece at the summit then it should go it alone and supply aid itself and not expect Germany to do the same.”

‘Interpreted as Weakness’

Many European officials have resisted calling in the IMF. Falling back on the lender of last resort “could be interpreted as some sign of weakness of our institutions,” ECB Vice President-elect Vitor Constancio said yesterday. The euro has declined almost 6 percent this year on concern that Greece’s financial woes threatened the future of monetary union.

“Markets have considered the problems by individual member states as a de facto test for the single currency,” the Finnish central bank said in a report published in Helsinki today.

The agreement on the IMF role came as EU President Herman Van Rompuy pushed to bridge the differences an aid to Greece and after Sarkozy called for a meeting of euro-region leaders before the Brussels gathering to take up the issue.

Van Rompuy pursued a similar strategy last month, when he delayed the start of the Feb. 11 summit to broker an accord in principle “to take determined and coordinated action” to safeguard the euro area.

‘Positive’ Results

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said that he expected “positive” results from the summit and preferred a European solution for any potential aid. “We want to borrow with better rates and believe this will happen with the implementation of the deficit plan,” he said at a conference in Athens yesterday.

Greece is banking on wage cuts and tax increases to shave the deficit to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product this year from 12.7 percent in 2009, the highest in the euro’s 11-year history. Papaconstantinou said that target is reachable even if the economy shrinks as much as 2 percent this year.