15 May 2010 / REUTERS, GREECE
Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) Chief Executive Josef Ackermann cast doubt on Greece’s ability to repay its debt in a TV interview and said a $1 trillion euro zone rescue package will help stabilize Italy and Spain, while the situation in Portugal is more difficult.
Ackermann, one of Europe’s top bankers, who has helped to put together a private-sector bailout package for Greece, questioned the country’s ability to turn itself around, according to excerpts of a transcript for the Maybrit Illner talk show set to be broadcast on German television ZDF on Thursday evening. Greece has been forced to implement tough austerity measures as a precondition for an international bailout, a move that has sparked widespread protests in the southern European country. “Whether Greece over this time period is really in a position, to bring up the strength to make this effort, I have my doubts,” Ackermann said in the transcript, adding that this requires “unbelievable efforts.”If Greece were to “fall down” this could spread to other countries and lead to “a sort of meltdown,” Ackermann told ZDF. Greece is the first country in 11 years of European monetary union to require a political pledge of support as fears over its debt sparked a market attack that has dented the euro and required euro zone governments to team up for a bailout. Thanks to a $1 trillion rescue package assembled to stabilize the euro, Ackermann believes Italy and Spain will be “strong enough to service their debt,” limiting the probability of so-called contagion but added that in the case of Portugal things are more “difficult.”
