The government of Greece is hoping to convince China to buy US$35.2 billion in government bonds to fund its public debt, the Financial Times reported. Goldman Sachs has reportedly been working to encourage China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) to buy the bonds, but the paper citied sources close to SAFE as saying it was hesitant to add to its existing holdings of Greek debt. Separately, Greek officials rejected the idea of a Chinese bank buying a stake in commercial lender National Bank of Greece (NBG). Chinese officials said sovereign-wealth fund China Investment Corp was also uninterested in an investment in NBG, and that a commercial lender like Bank of China would not be permitted to make such a deal.
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