Greek Ex-Minister: Other Euro Countries Did Swaps Too

Greece's 2001 deal to swap some of its debt using currency derivatives was in line with what other euro-zone countries were doing, Yiannos Papantoniou, the country's finance and economy minister when the deal was made, told CNBC.com Wednesday.

The transaction, intermediated by Goldman Sachs, involved exchanging about 2.8 billion euros ($3.8 billion) worth of bonds denominated in yen and US dollars — that would have generated substantial outflows in 2002 — into euros, maturing in 2019, Papantoniou explained.

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"We took a loan that was to be repaid in 2019," he said in a telephone interview. "It was public. I know that what we've done then was consistent with what was done by many euro zone countries." (more)