Bargain investors may see the Greek market as a cheap play after the recent plunge. However, the Greece exchange traded fund may take a while before fully recovering.
The Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (NYSEArca: GREK) has gained 10.7% since the late June low, but it has still plunged 26.7% so far this year and 54.9% over the past year.
Investors betting on a rebound in Greece’s market and economy will likely twiddle their thumbs for a while. The International Monetary Fund argues that Greece will need a 30-year grace period on servicing all its European debt before the country pulls itself out its current quagmire, Reuters reports.
“We have made it clear … we need a concrete and ambitious solution to the debt problem,” a senior IMF official told Reuters. “I don’t think this is a gimmick or kicking the can down the road … If you were to give them 30 years grace you are allowing them in the meantime to bring down debt by … getting some growth back.”
The IMF projects that Greek debt will hit 200% of GDP in two years, which could “only be made sustainable through debt relief measures that go far beyond what Europe has been willing to consider so far.”
Meanwhile, Greece is set to enact a slew of painful austerity measures that were more stringent than those rejected in a referendum earlier this month. [Even With a Deal in Place, Greece ETF Tumbles]
To receive a third bailout worth €86 billion, or $95 billion, over three years, Greece will have to enact measures including higher value-added taxes on a range of products and services, an end to VAT discounts on Greek islands, a higher corporate tax rate for small businesses, a higher luxury tax on some goods, an end to early retirement and an increase in the retirement age, reports BBC.