ATHENS: George Soros a billionaire investor said that the chances of Greece leaving the eurozone are now 50-50 and the country could go “down the drain”. “It’s now a lose-lose game and the best that can happen is actually muddling through. Greece is a long-festering problem that was mishandled from the beginning by all parties.”
Greece Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government needs to persuade its creditors to sign off on a package of economic measures to free up long-withheld aid payments that will keep the country afloat. He has tried to shape an alternative to the austerity program set out in the nation’s bailout agreement since January, spurring concern that Greece may be forced out of the euro.
Soros stated the negotiations between Tsipras’s Syriza government and the institutions helping finance the Greece economy, the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund could result in a “breakdown,” leading to the country leaving the common currency area, Soros.
“You can keep on pushing it back indefinitely,” making interest payments without writing down debt, Soros said. “But in the meantime there will be no primary surplus because Greece is going down the drain.”
