With pressure growing over talks with private investors about the terms of a €100bn debt write-off, officials calculated that to bring the country’s debts to a sustainable level at 120pc of GDP the international community would need to find an extra €15bn, raising the prospect of a Greek default.
Sources told news organisations in Brussels that weak growth will make it even more difficult for Greece to resolve its debt problem, leaving the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund with the prospect of an even larger bail-out than the €130bn planned.
The warning came as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the emergency bail-out funds are not big enough.
The international think-tank said the European Financial Stability Facility’s (EFSF) €440bn (£366bn) firepower “is not enough” to support the lending requirements of indebted countries, particularly given that it “has not found it easy to raise funds with low yields”.
Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain need to repay a total of €700bn this year and €400bn next year.
