Haircut of Greece's Debt Hurts Both It and the Eurozone: ECB's Orphanides

A haircut of Greek debt is unnecessary and harmful for Greece and the Eurozone, and it has stoked wider concerns about future bond impairment in other member states, European Central Bank Governing Council member Athanasios Orphanides said in a newspaper interview Sunday.

A possible haircut of the Greek debt is unnecessary, and it is harmful for Greece and for the euro area as a whole. I still hold this view, Orphanides said.

In my view, imposing a haircut on Greek debt was neither the most effective nor the most efficient way of resolving the sovereign crisis in the euro area. Unfortunately, a deterioration is observed in the euro area, which, I believe, was entirely predictable, Orphanides, who is governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus, told the island's Kathimerini newspaper in an interview.

(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Edititing by Robert Birsel)