DB: Greek Debt Default Would Be Bigger Than Argentina, Russia

A Greek default would be bigger than the ones of Argentina and Russia and risk a "vicious circle" of contagion in Europe, according to Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank, Bloomberg reports.

The news agency says Greece has double the debt that Russia and Argentina had combined when they defaulted in 1998 and 2001, since it has 254 billion euro of debt outstanding, compared with the 51 billion euro Russia defaulted on and the 57.2 billion euro on which Argentina missed payments.
 
"The numbers involved are far greater than the Russian and Argentine defaults," said Jim Reid, head of fundamental strategy at Deutsche Bank in London. If Greece΄s position continues to deteriorate, Europe is "risking a vicious circle similar to what we saw in finance prior to the banking bail- outs," he said, according to Bloomberg.