Ellinikon is the last dice roll for the reduction of interest rates

The government is turning Ellinikon into a masthead, the first big foreign investment in the post-memorandum era, to persuade that the climate is changing and reach the aim/ memorandum term of 15bil from privatisations by 2013.

After many months of inaction and procrastination in the area of privatisations, the finance minister is throwing the famous 50 billion in the battle to lower interest rates, with the use of domestic land as collateral for the Troika, and above all Germany, that not even a single cent of their money will be lost.

While responding to journalists, the minister himself did not hide the fact that the extension alone is not enough any longer. "Whether it is sufficient or not depends on how you deal with the markets. So we put on the table issues such as improving the conditions of borrowing, but also through the possibility of a European mechanism or otherwise, having public debt management, such as for example the question of a repurchase of a part of it" he said, confirming the story of protothema.gr, which revealed a plan to renegotiate the debt, bailed by the national land and privatisations, two weeks ago.

To achieve this, however, the Treasury and the government in its entirety should really give a fight this time, to present the project for the list of privatisations and ways to collect tax revenue in May .

The climate is heavy internationally

But the negotiation is complicated by the clouds gathered over the global economy. The oil crisis bringsconcerns to our lenders too. The German “NO” portends adverse developments in the Summits of March and a new attack by the markets against Greek bonds.

Lars Feld, speaking in the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche, even said about our country that “the extension of the repayment of loans is not enough. Greece is a political dynamite. If they want to avoid this big bang, there is no other way than restructuring. I don’t have a good feeling, in view of the summit on March 24”.

The minister is sure about the deals

All this when the Minister of Finance appears to be "absolutely convinced" that the coming weeks will see a lot happening in the banking sector. This assessment was expressed in an interview in the Saturday financial newspaper "Kefalaio", where he stressed that such a direction for the domestic financial system has been determined by our lenders.

"The European Commission, the ECB and the IMF in their joint positions have talked about the need for restructuring the Greek banking system. This also involves mergers. And in the updated version of the program that was announced, there is a paragraph urging Greek banks into mergers with either other Greek or foreign banks. This was the first act, we believe, of a play which will be on in the coming weeks and months. I am absolutely certain that we will see many things in the near future”.

And asked about the stance adopted by the government during the talks between the National and Alpha Bank, he said that “our representative requested more time to study the offer and did not consider it appropriate to make such a fast decision.”