A deputy German finance minister dismissed a magazine report saying finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had told conservative members of parliament yesterday to prepare for a looming Greek bankruptcy and euro zone exit.
"This report is nonsense," deputy finance minister Steffen Kampeter told Reuters today on the sidelines of a regional
meeting of Christian Democrats in the western town of Krefeld.
Mr Kampeter said that Mr Schaeuble had spoken to the conservative MPs yesterday about the need for the austerity and reform measures in Greece to be implemented.
German newsweekly Focus reported that Mr Schaeuble had told MPs in Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the sister party, Christian Social Union (CSU), to get ready for Greece leaving the euro zone and a Greek state bankruptcy.
The magazine said in an advance of a report in its Monday edition that Mr Schaeuble was talking to the MPs about the further development of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the euro zone's permanent bailout fund.
He said that an aspect that would be necessary was to have a set-up for state bankruptcies. Focus said that participants of the meeting heard Mr Schaeuble say that in the view of many experts Greece would not make it
"without an external devaluation."
Reuters
