CNBC: Greek debt not repayable in this lifetime

Jevons Global founder and CIO Kingsley Jones point blank told CNBC on Monday that the Greek debt “is not repayable in this lifetime”.

“We have to be realistic here. Greek debt is now 175 percent of gross domestic product (GDP); it’s higher than it was when this whole business first started,” he emphasized.

Of course, the network did not mention the fact that Greece’s GDP evaporated by one quarter since 2008 due to the economic meltdown.

According to CNBC, European officials should accept that Greece may never repay its debt, even if the troubled economy secures a bailout extension.

Jones also cited Japan as an example.”Just look at Japan. It has government debt rapidly approaching 300 percent of GDP. One day, that debt pile simply implodes. It is not ever going to be repaid, nor will the Greek debt. There is no use standing on the high moral ground.”

Athens’ current bailout program with European creditors requires Greece to reduce its debt to below 110 percent of GDP by 2022, says the report.

On Friday, in a last minute deal, the program was extended for another four months. No talks or negotiations took place on a long-standing demand by ruling party SYRIZA’s for a “haircut” on Greece’s debt, particularly to institutional holder — a pledge repeatedly continuously by the leftist party when it was in the opposition over recent years.

Nevertheless, a final confirmation of Friday’s bailout extension hinges on the list of reforms Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ government submits by Monday, according to CNBC.

“The terms of the current agreement pretty much require Greece to attempt to run a primary budget surplus over 4 percent for well over a decade…No country with an unhealthy economy has ever managed to do that. So, we think that the current terms that are required of Greece are frankly pretty unrealistic,” added  to CNBC the founder and CIO of Jevons Global Kingsley Jones.

At the same time, CNBC makes an extensive report on “haircuts” and Grexit risks

While Tsipras is no longer demanding a haircut given his limited bargaining power, describes the report, experts say European creditors must realize there’s no other solution if they want Greece to remain in the euro zone given the country’s weak finances.

“What the Eurogroup should accept is that Greece is insolvent and needs a material haircut. They should have done that in 2010, but they chose to extend Greece more credit and push out the problem,” said Nicholas Ferres, investment director of global asset allocation at Eastspring Investments to CNBC.

“Greece has had a 30 percent cut in output from peak levels, which is equivalent to the Great Depression in the 1930s, it’s [austerity] just not sustainable,” he added.

However, European institutions will likely continue to reject the option of a haircut since they want Greece to get its fiscal house in order, explained Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG, adding that officials would be willing to consider any other Greek concession except for a haircut.

Regarding Grexit, the report continues by saying that while Friday’s eleventh-hour deal did spark optimism for a permanent solution, calls for a Greek exit, or ‘Grexit,’ from the euro zone are still high.

The CNBC article concludes by stating that “If you actually look at Friday’s deal, Greece got nothing and Germany got everything and we are now edging towards a Greek exit from the EMU (European Economic and Monetary Union).