EU wants Greece to explain debt swaps

[February 15, 2010]  BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Commission says it wants Greece to explain how it used complex financial deals that allegedly made its debt limits look lower.

EU spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio says the EU executive has given Greece an end-of-February deadline to give details on how deals called currency swaps affected government accounts since 2001.

He said such swaps weren't illegal unless the Greece was not using market rates to calculate the exchange rate.

Greece is already under fire for falsifying statistics last year on its deficit, triggering a debt crisis that threatens the euro currency union.

[Associated Press]

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