(MENAFN- AFP) Greece's debt mountain -- the biggest issue for the new government in Athens -- is at the centre of negotiations between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the country's EU partners and main creditors.
Q: How much does Greece owe in total
A: More than 315 billion euros (nearly $360 billion). The exact figure varies according to different sources: the EU's statistics authority Eurostat puts it at 315.5 billion euros at the end of September 2014, while the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) estimates it at 324 billion euros.
Depending on the figure used, the debt totals between 175 percent and 177 percent of Greek gross domestic product (GDP), an all-time record for the European Union.
The issue is whether such a huge amount of debt is "sustainable", that is, whether Greece can afford to service it. The massive interest payments eat up a large part of the country's financial resources, leaving it very little to invest in economic growth and job creation.
The debt is therefore the crucial issue for Greece.
Q: Who holds Greek debt When must it be paid back
A: The EFSF is the biggest creditor to Greece, holding more than 40 percent of the total debt. Set up in 2010 to come to the rescue of ailing eurozone countries, the EFSF has loaned a total 141.8 billion euros to Greece in a number of different tranches. The average maturity of the debt is 30 years.
The EFSF raised the funds via the markets, but eurozone countries guaranteed equivalent amounts, each proportional to their economic weight in the single currency bloc. Germany guaranteed more than 40 billion euros and France 31 billion euros.
In addition to the guarantees, Greece's eurozone partners also paid out a total 52.9 billion euros in bilateral loans as part of an initial bailout programme. Here, too, the share was proportional to the countries' economic weightings.
The European Central Bank (ECB) started buying up Greek bonds on the financial markets in 2010 and currently holds around 25 billion euros in Greek debt, a central bank spokesman said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which participated in the different rescue packages, holds around the same amount.
The remainder of the debt is held by investors -- mainly banks -- in the form of bonds, with an average maturity of just over eight years.
A country's total exposure to Greece's debt includes the bonds held by its banks, its bilateral loans and its capital shares in the IMF, and so on. ECB executive board member Benoit Coeure estimated Monday that France's total exposure, for example, is 40 billion euros.
Q: What has been offered to Greece so far in terms of debt relief
A: At the start of 2012, Greece restructured its debt in a deal involving so-called Private Sector Involvement or PSI, with private creditors taking "haircuts" or writing down parts of their holdings. This cut Greece's total debt burden by around 100 billion euros.
At the same time, public creditors agreed to relief measures, too, such as lower interest rates and longer maturities. Greece need not repay any other bilateral loans before 2020 and interest payments have been reduced during the next coming years. But wiping out public debt remains taboo.
Q: What are the possible scenarios
A: European leaders have ruled out a simple or straightforward debt write-off, or partial write-off. But "there will be no getting round a renegotiation" of the debt, a European source told AFP. As in 2012, it could take the form of a renewed reduction in interest rates and/or extended maturities. Even if this applied only to the EFSF and bilateral loans, such a move would provide substantial debt relief for Greece, as the two represent more than 60 percent of the total debt.
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