Well-known US investor and financier Paul Karazian once again re-entered the Greek debt fray with a “bang” over the weekend insisting that his calculations of the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is a very healthy 71 percent, rather than the more officially accepted 177-percent level.
In citing what he calls the “lie of the century” in an article posted by Spiegel online, the flamboyant 61-year-old founder of Japanica Partners and former Goldman Sachs executive said his main criteria is the duration of the debt load and not its nominal value.
According to the 61-year-old Kazarian, the nominal value of the Greek debt should no longer be the starting point, namely, its absolute value of around 312 billion euros (at the end of 2015), but rather the debt should be calculated according to the current value of its liabilities, assets and annual obligations.
He points out that Greece’s European institutional lenders have not only significantly lowered interest rates, but that the country can also repay debts over a longer period and can start re-payment 10 years later than originally foreseen. Inflation means a much lower burden, he said.
Kazarian has long maintained that Japanica is the largest private holder of Greek government debt.
