Greek Debt Problems Unlikely to Spread: IMF Head

Reuters
March 8, 2010

The crisis over Greece’s debt mountain is unlikely to spread to other euro zone countries with high levels of public debt, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Monday.

In an interview with Reuters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Strauss-Kahn dismissed market speculation of potential default by other heavily indebted euro zone countries such as Portugal, Spain or Ireland as scare-mongering.

“You can add to the list all of the countries in the euro zone, to try to scare people about everything. I don’t think it will happen,” he said. “We have a problem with Greece. We don’t have a problem with Spain to date. The euro zone has to deal with the Greek problem. They are doing this. No one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow morning but there’s no reason why the spillover to Portugal or to Spain will take place.”

Separately, Strauss-Kahn, who is on a tour of Kenya, South Africa and Zambia to see how the poorest continent has bounced back from last year’s global economic crisis, said he was confident euro zone countries could handle the Greek debt maelstrom.

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