Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-04-21

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] JP Morgan offer 'being evaluated', Finmin says

[01] JP Morgan offer 'being evaluated', Finmin says

BERLIN (ANA-MPA - P. Stangos) The Greek government is carefully evaluating JP Morgan's proposal to buy back a controversial structured bond worth 280 million euros, Greek Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis told reporters on Saturday after the end of an informal ECOFIN Council held here in Berlin.

"I will repeat what I said yesterday, which is that we have to be very careful. We are looking at this proposal very seriously and, as I said, our criteria are whether it ensures full compensation of any losses incurred by social insurance funds that bought these bonds on the secondary market from the other players that participated in the secondary market," he said.

Replying to other questions regarding the offer made by JP Morgan, meanwhile, the minister said the government had been informed but not come to any ?understanding? on this issue.

He did point out, however, that the move indicated that neither JP Morgan nor the Greek finance ministry had anything to fear from the specific bond, which was issued with complete transparency.

"As to whether there was overpricing of the bond on the secondary market by other players and whether this overpricing caused losses to certain funds, this is another issue that is now under investigation and we will see if we will accept the specific proposal or not, whether it is truly possible that all those in the chain that intervened from the issuance of the bond until it reached the funds are prepared to reverse their actions," Alogoskoufis added.

Regarding an upcoming visit to Athens by European Commissioner for monetary affairs Joaquin Almunia, Alogoskoufis said the Commissioner was coming at the invitation of the finance ministry to take part in a conference on the "European social model" and an Economist conference.

Almunia is expected to express the Commission's standing views on European issues and the Greek economy, he added.

Regarding the results of the ECOFIN meeting, Alogoskoufis said he was very satisfied with the discussion that took place on Friday regarding the sense of insecurity and uncertainty created by globalisation.

A proposal by Germany and Austria to change the method of VAT payments for cross-border transactions in order to avoid tax evasion, however, was regarded as ?premature? by Athens and other countries, the minister said.

CAPTION: ANA-MPA file photo of Economy and Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis after a meeting of the Greek cabinet in June.

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