Athens Plans Asset Sales to Pare Debt

The cash-strapped Greek government is putting a host of state assets on the block, but has drawn the line at off loading islands in a bid to reduce its crushing debt burden, The Wall Street Journal reported. Officials plan to sell some of the country's eclectic holdings, which include jumbo jets and stakes in banks and a famed casino. Prime Minister George Papandreou recently dismissed a suggestion by a few German politicians that Athens sell some of the country's uninhabited islands, telling the Financial Times, "There are more imaginative and effective ways of dealing with the deficit than selling off Greek islands." Instead, the government figures that by selling its stakes in a bank and a betting company, as well as its share of the national telecommunications company, it can raise €2.5 billion ($3.76 billion)—the equivalent of 1% of gross domestic product, its target for this year. That would only scratch the surface of Greece's debt—which has surpassed the country's €250 billion-a-year GDP—but would underscore for financial markets that Athens is serious about fixing its public finances. Read more. (Subscription required.)