BERLIN—German officials rushed on Monday to calm highly stressed markets, insisting Greece should stay in the eurozone, amid rising alarm that Germany is losing patience with being the bailout paymaster.
A raft of comments by senior German politicians raising the specter of an “orderly default” for Greece and even an ignominious eurozone exit sent the euro to a 10-year low as traders worried the debt crisis was worsening.
But a spokesman for Germany’s Economy Minister Philip Roesler, who is also vice chancellor, sought to allay these fears, saying: “Our common goal is the stability of the euro and we want Greece to stay in the euro.”
At the same news conference, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said that Germany “assumes that Greece is doing everything it can” to implement strict austerity measures to battle its deficit woes.
“Our goal is quite clear: We want to stabilize the eurozone as a whole,” Steffen Seibert said.
Roesler himself had contributed to the market fears by writing in an opinion article in Monday’s edition of the conservative Die Welt daily that Europe could no longer rule out an “orderly default” for Greece.
“To stabilize the euro, we must not take anything off the table in the short run,” Roesler wrote.
Also fanning the flames were comments by the general secretary of the Free Democrats (FDP), junior coalition partners in Berlin, suggesting that Greece’s euro membership was in doubt.
“It is our goal that Greece stays in the eurozone, that Greece implements its savings measures,” Christian Lindner told ARD television. “But we must consider what happens if the Greeks are not in a position to do this.”
“The Greeks must decide themselves whether they want to stay in the euro or not … it should not be a taboo,” added Lindner.
“Rumors are spreading that the German government is hoping to end the Greece aid. It is tempting to believe these rumors, as everything seems to fit,” said Ulrich Leuchtmann, an analyst at Commerzbank.
Both German and US 10-year bond yields also hit historic low points as investors shunned risky deals and bought assets seen as safe during times of financial turmoil.
Also fueling financial market fears was an article in Der Spiegel news weekly reporting that Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble doubted that Greece can avoid a default.
Spiegel said that finance ministry officials in Berlin were considering two scenarios should Greece go bankrupt: one where the country stays in the eurozone and another where it introduces its former currency, the drachma.
Hans-Werner Sinn, president of the influential Ifo Economic Institute in Germany, told reporters that a Greek default “would not be the end of the world but a liberation for the country.”
He said that Greece needed to devalue its currency by 20 or 30 percent. “To do that, they need to leave the eurozone. It would be the least bad scenario,” Sinn said.
Despite seeking to calm the waters, Berlin stuck to its tough line that Athens needed to fulfil its international commitments to receive its next tranche of aid.
“Our line on Greece is clear: We will help, but only under strict conditions,” said Seibert.
If Greece is not able to live up to its commitments, “then the next tranche cannot be paid. That is quasi-automatic,” he said.
Holger Schmieding, an analyst at Berenberg Bank, warned of the damage that that would cause.
“A German ‘no’ to further support for Greece is a serious risk, although it is not the most likely scenario yet,” he said.
However, if this were to happen, “it could weigh on financial markets, depress business and consumer sentiment and exacerbate the near-term downside risks to the German and overall eurozone economy.”