Greece wins more time but no immediate aid

NUMBERS GAME

Three officials told Reuters that the troika had concluded that Greece's debt burden will fall only to 144 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 and roughly 10 percentage points lower two years later if current policies do not change.

Once there is an agreement on Greece's debt path and how to bring it down, it will be sent to national parliaments to get approval for the disbursement of the next aid tranche -- money Athens needs urgently to pay off loans and shore up its banks.

In the meantime, Greece will be allowed to issue more short-term paper to keep itself afloat.

Among the new instruments under consideration to reduce Greek debt are the removal of the 150-basis-point interest above financing costs on 53 billion euros of bilateral government loans to Greece, and lengthening the maturity of the loans.

Greece may also borrow from the euro zone bailout fund to buy back its privately held debt, of which there is 50-60 billion euros, taking advantage of the deep discount it trades at to save money on redemptions and interest payments.

Athens has to redeem 5 billion euros worth of treasury bills on November 16 and has been counting on cash from the next euro zone aid tranche to help cover that. Since the money will not come in time, Greece wants to roll over the bills.

"I won't tell you how, but there won't be any problem on Nov 16," Juncker said.

Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos (C), Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker (L) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde (R) attend a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels Nov 12, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]