Greek debt restructuring 'not an option': Juncker

(PARIS) - A restructuring of Greek debt is "not an option" because it would cause enormous problems, the head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers Jean-Claude Juncker said here on Thursday.

Juncker said after a meeting with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on EU debt problems, including Greek debt, that "the restructuring of the debt is not an option, it would lead to enormous problems which have not yet been identified, that is if they could ever be identified."

Juncker, who is Luxembourg Prime Minister and Finance Minister said: "Therefore it (restructuring Greek debt) is not a working hypothesis."

Greece, which has been rescued from the threat of default by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, has the worst debt problem in the eurozone.

Many financial analysts consider that it cannot escape a debt restructuring eventually, implying that holders of its bonds would lose money.

The Greek public deficit, the amount by which expenditure exceeds revenues, was 10.5 percent of output last year, on the basis of data from the EU statistics office Eurostat.

This is sharply higher than the figure estimated by the Greek government of 9.4 percent, after 15.4 percent in 2009, and far above the EU ceiling of 3.0 percent.

The debt, of accumulated past deficits, has risen to 142.8 percent of gross domestic product instead of the target of 142.5 percent. The total amount is close to 330 billion euros ($489.5 billion), putting Greece at the top of the list of indebted EU countries, far ahead of Italy with a debt ratio of 119 percent and Belgium with 96.8 percent.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, speaking in Greece on Thursday, attacked those who talked Greece down and who speculated on a restructuring of the debt which the government has totally ruled out.