Schaeuble says Greece must ditch false hopes, tackle reform

By Brendan Greeley, Rainer Buergin & Birgit Jennen

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble ruled out further concessions to Greece, saying it's up to the Greek government to commit to the reforms needed to release aid rather than give false hopes to its people.

Schaeuble, speaking in a Bloomberg Television interview in New York on Wednesday, said that another debt restructuring wasn't up for discussion now, and that Greek demands for war reparations from Germany were "completely unrealistic."

"It's entirely down to Greece," said Schaeuble, 72. While some kind of restructuring might be on the agenda in 10 years, "today the issue for Greece is reforming its economy in such a way that it becomes competitive at some point."

Greece's plight is deepening with no end in sight to the standoff with creditors over releasing the final installment of bailout aid, which has been stalled since the January election of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's anti-austerity government. Standard & Poor's cut Greece's rating Wednesday to CCC+ from B-, citing the country's deteriorating outlook.

Greek 10-year bond yields surged and bank stocks plunged to their lowest level in at least 20 years on Wednesday after Die Zeit newspaper reported the German government was working on a plan to keep Greece in the euro area if the country defaulted, triggering a halt to European Central Bank funding. The Athens Stock Exchange Index dropped 0.8 percent at the start of trading Thursday and bond yields were little changed.

"We don't have such plans, and if we were working on them -- because ministry staff are taking just about everything into consideration -- then we would definitely not talk about it," said Schaeuble. "It makes no sense...