EU official: Greece needs extra $20 billion

BRUSSELS -- Greece needs about an extra 15 billion euros to get its debt down to manageable levels -- and the rest of 17-country eurozone is being asked to help foot the bill.

Debt-ridden Greece is close to a deal with private investors to reduce its debt burden by about 100 billion euros and that -- plus an agreement to enact deep spending cuts -- could pave the way for a 130 billion-euro bailout from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund. But on Thursday a European Union official said this plan was not enough to help fix Greece's problems, which are getting worse as the effects of the recession take hold.

In order to bring Greece's debt burden to a sustainable level -- 120 percent of its economic output in eight years' time -- the country's international debt inspectors calculate that Greece needs an additional 15 billion euros -- a shortfall they believes should be made up by the rest of the 17-country eurozone, the European official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter

The extra money, in theory, could come either from the other euro countries or by having the European Central Bank, its national counterparts and state-owned banks like France's Caisse de Depots taking a loss on their Greek bond holdings, the official said. Analysts estimate that the European Central Bank holds 50 billion euros to 55 billion euros in Greek bonds by face value but it can't simply write them down without breaking the EU treaty, which prohibits the bank from financing governments. Writing off a debt would be, in effect, transferring money directly to a government.

The new push for Greece's public and government creditors to take a cut on their investments -- dubbed the official sector involvement, or OSI -- is a new front in the battle to save the country from a potentially devastating default. So far the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund have given billions in bailout loans to the struggling country, but they haven't been asked to take losses.

It is also an acknowledgment that Greece's economy is in such a dire state that the country's debt inspectors -- the so-called troika of the Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF -- are having a hard time finding more ways in which Athens can save money.

Greece has been at the heart of Europe's debt crisis since it revealed in 2009 that its debt was far larger than its official estimates. It piled on the debt during a decade in which the government overspent and its economy was growing. Those fortunes turned when the world went into recession in 2008.

The challenge now is reducing the debt at a time when the economy is shrinking. Spending cuts, tax increases and the general uncertainty of the crisis have already pushed Greece into a deep recession, which in turn has eliminated many of the gains from the austerity measures.

Asking private creditors like banks and investment funds to share the burden of saving Greece was the first reaction to this problem; getting the public sector creditors involved is the next.

The official said a deal with private creditors to take losses on their holdings will have to be announced before the end of the week to make sure it can be implemented before Athens has to pay back (euro) 14.5 billion in bonds on March 20.

Experts from national finance ministries will examine the details of the deal on the so-called private sector involvement -- or PSI -- on Friday, and will likely also discuss how the (euro) 15 billion gap can be closed, the official said.

People familiar with the tentative deal have said it would see investors take losses of more than 70 percent of their holdings. On top of having to accept a 50 percent cut in the face value of their bonds, investors will also receive lower interest rates of between 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent and give Greece 30 years to pay back the debt.

If agreed, the deal would end negotiations with bondholders that started this summer and have become increasingly tenuous in recent weeks.

Getting public creditors like central banks or sovereign wealth funds to take a hit may be even more controversial, since any losses or foregone profits ultimately come out of taxpayers' pockets. Germany, the strongest economy in the eurozone, is also one of the strongest opponents of OSI.

Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said on n-tv television Thursday that he didn't see the need for "any extra contributions from the public sector; we're carrying everything anyway."

Schaeuble didn't address the issue of the (euro) 15 billion funding gap.

The majority of the ECB's Greek bonds were bought at a discount in the summer of 2010, when the central bank was trying to stabilize their prices. Even though it is bound by the rules of the EU treaty, it could find a way to give up the substantial profit it would earn by holding the bonds to maturity. It could do that by selling the bonds to the eurozone bailout fund or to Greece at the knockdown prices it bought them for.

However, the ECB has so far given no indication that it is willing to do so, with some of its governing board members saying that giving up on profits would clash with the bank's ban.

Alternatively, eurozone states could boost their bailout loans beyond the promised (euro) 130 billion, or provide some, more-limited, relief by further lowering interest rates on these loans.

Analyst Carsten Brzeski at ING in Brussels said the ECB and President Mario Draghi might be open to giving up the profits on the bonds. But the bank will wait to take action so it does not appear to be acting at the request of politicians.

The bank is legally independent and the EU treaty forbids it to take instructions from government officials.

"I think Draghi could live with it, but they will not bow very easily," said Brzeski. "It has to look like it is their own idea, their own initiative."

While officials have stressed the need for Greece's financing to be set before the bailout goes through, the main players have been flexible before and "it's not as hardball as it looks."

On the official side, "someone will have to bite the bullet, or everyone," he said. European officials are trying "to have everyone take part in the burden sharing and thereby get the ECB involved."

The (euro) 130 billion second bailout package also still depends on labor market reforms that the EU and IMF are asking Greece to implement. Unions and employers resumed talks on Thursday over troika demands to lower wage costs in the private sector and possibly lower the minimum wage.

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AP Business Writer David McHugh contributed from Frankfurt.