Policy

Bailout Fatigue May Leave Greece Two Billion Euros Short

Time to pay their own bills

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European foot-dragging could leave Greece short of 2.0 billion euros ($2.7 billion) this year as some euro zone creditors are reluctant to roll over their Greek debt holdings, Greek and euro zone sources involved in the matter told Reuters.

Greece's creditors—euro zone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund—agreed last December that the bloc's 17 national central banks would replace some of the Greek bonds they hold with new Greek paper as the debt matures.

This measure, called the "rollover of ANFA holdings", was expected to spare Greece from having to redeem 3.7 billion euros of debt in 2013-2014 and 1.9 billion euros in 2015-2016.