Greek Bailout Rests on Asset Sale Plan That’s Already Failed

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) Greece’s last-ditch bailout requires the country to sell 50 billion euros ($55 billion) of assets, an ambition it hasn’t come close to achieving under previous restructuring plans.

The government of then-Prime Minister George Papandreou in 2011 set the same financial goal, which it sought to achieve by hawking airports, seaports, and beachside real estate. Since then, such deals have yielded 3.5 billion euros, according to the state privatization authority.

Making the asset-sale math work as the economy contracts will be difficult for Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who on Monday bowed to demands from European creditors in exchange for a bailout of as much as 86 billion euros that will keep the country in the euro zone. Half the money from asset disposals is already earmarked for the country’s teetering banks. They need the money to rebuild their capital buffers and, without it, may no longer be able to operate.

“Fifty billion euros is a very unrealistic target,” said Diego Iscaro, an economist at research firm IHS Inc. “Asset prices have been badly hit by the economic depression and we do not expect them to significantly recover any time soon.”

Failed Program

The current target would see Greece attempting to find buyers for the equivalent of just over a fifth of the country’s annual gross domestic product. Since its debt crisis began in earnest in 2010, Greece’s attempts to raise cash from state property have been fraught with difficulty. .........................(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-13/greek-bailout-rests-on-asset-sale-plan-that-s-already-failed

[Hydra]

1. I guess that would mean

They are expecting the Greeks to sell off everything at fire sale prices, then sell of their grandmothers?

[Igel]

3. I'll wait.

This story sounds like a rather bad extrapolation from what they said would be required.

Placing 50 billion euros worth of real assets in a kind of trust fund to be managed and/or sold. Doesn't sound like the same plan, to be honest.

At the same time, the unstated assumption is that a good faith effort was made in the past to sell assets. I like my news stories to state explicitly the crucial bits necessary for the story to say what it's supposed to say, rather than having me simply assume that what's to be proven in the story is true because it's presupposed.

[PoliticAverse]

2. This is what happens when your country gets places in 'receivership'. n/t