The payback period for Greece should be extended for two or three years if the country sticks to the savings targets and reform plans, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said in an interview published on Sunday.
“It is important that Greece followed the previously agreed targets concerning reforms and savings. If this is guaranteed, then I support extra payback period. It might be two or three years, it’s up to experts to decide,” Faymann was quoted as saying by the Sunday edition of the Oesterreich newspaper.
Under the terms of the bailout agreement signed with the troika of international lenders, Greece must convince its creditors it can cut 11.5 billion euros ($14.3 billion) from the state budget within the next two years to be able to receive the much-needed loans from the second package of the 130 billion euro ($163 billion) aid.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras who met German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday in Berlin, has argued Greece needs more time to implement the austerity measures and reforms demanded by international lenders who have granted it bailout funds.
