Eurozone ministers gather for crunch meeting on Greece

The battle to save Greece from financial collapse will play out in Brussels this afternoon as Eurozone finance ministers gather to discuss a €130bn bailout for the debt-crippled country.

The issues on the table include not only the €130bn but also a deal with private sector lenders who will be forced to take a 70% cut in the loans they made to Greece.

Another key issue is the target of getting Greece's debt to GDP ratio to 120% by 2020. This is the level which the International Monetary Fund believes is "sustainable", thus allowing it to contribute to the bailout.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

In order to make sure this 120% figure is reached the finance ministers would like the ECB to forgo interest payments on the Greek bonds it has accumulated since the crisis began.

These discussions take place in the context of the Greek economy going through paroxysms of agony, with the latest figures showing its GDP in the final quarter of 2011 was 7% lower than at the same point of 2010.

Perhaps most worrying of all for the Eurozone, the mainstream political parties in Greece, which have committed to the austerity measures needed to secure the bailout, are rapidly losing support amongst the electorate. National elections in April may well render the current agreements meaningless and throw the single currency into chaos once again.

BS