SINGAPORE, July 4, 2011 (AFP) - Plans to rollover Greece's debt risk putting the country into a selective default, ratings firm Standard & Poor's warned Monday.
Eurozone finance ministers late Saturday cleared the way for the next 12-billion-euro tranche of last year's 110-billion-euro ($160 billion) EU-IMF bailout for Greece after the country's parliament passed tough austerity cuts.
But negotiations for the next tranche could be more complicated because some governments want private investors to share the burden by agreeing to voluntarily "roll over" their Greek debt.
France, whose banks hold a sizeable proportion of Greek debt, has proposed among other measures that lenders roll over their loans into new 30-year bonds, giving Greece more time to put its financial house in order.
"It is our view that each of the two financing options described in the Federation Bancaire Francaise proposal would likely amount to a default under our criteria," it said.
The "debt rollover proposal could result in a selective default for Greece," it said.
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