The increasingly likely move by Athens to ask bondholders for a voluntary debt restructuring would amount to a default, Standard & Poor’s warned on Monday as it cut Greece’s credit rating two notches.
The rating agency said demands from countries such as Germany that Athens should extend the debt payment maturities on bail-out loans would probably lead to similar demands on private creditors. “Such private-sector burden sharing would likely constitute a distressed exchange . . . for which we assign a rating of selective default,” S&P said.
The downgrade to B, six notches into junk territory, comes after European politicians acknowledged publicly that Greece’s €110bn rescue package was insufficient and more help would be needed.