The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) have “locked” the current low interest rates for certain long-term bond issues, a development that benefits Greece, ESM secretary general Kalin Anev Janse was quoted by the German news agency MNI on Friday.
Janse also said that Greece today is paying interest on loans of less than one percent, a figure much lower than the rate slapped by the IMF.
Janse said the ESM has calculated that with the very low rates offered by the mechanism Greece saves up to eight billion euros a year, or 4 percent of GDP, from the specific borrowing scheme, if compared with the rates that would have been available from the markets.
