Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said in Frankfurt Thursday that a state debt default by Athens was off the cards, in a bid to reassure nervous eurozone investors. "Restructuring is not going to happen," he said, adding that the consequences for such an action in the rest of the eurozone would be significant, according to dpa. The minister is on a whistle-stop tour of London, Paris and Frankfurt in a bid to shore up faith in his country's economy. Greece's massive debt and bond-market fears that the country would not be able to pay it back brought the eurozone into a crisis in May, as yields on Greek government bonds shot up to record levels. Greece still must pay over 11 per cent on 10-year government bonds, a near 9-per cent premium on German bonds. Greece was bailed out in an unprecedented European Union and International Monetary Fund rescue package agreed to on May 10, which stipulated a program of harsh budget consolidation. Papaconstantinou said in Frankfurt that Greece's restructuring efforts had "started very strongly." In fact, he said, Athens had moved further in many aspects than had been required. The minister said that his aim was to rebuild trust in the country so that it could again have access to international capital markets, perhaps as soon as 2011.
