'Events in Greece not to have any direct impact on India'

Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said that an upswing in stock markets will help the government pursue the ambitious divestment programme

Ongoing developments in Greece will only have indirect implications for India and it would be difficult to quantify any impact, if at all, on the country, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said on Monday.

“We are only indirectly affected by the Greek crisis. If there was any adverse impact (it) is difficult to quantify. . . Then there would be a positive impact also which is also difficult to quantify,” Mehrishi told reporters at the finance ministry on Monday.

Euro zone leaders clinched a deal with Greece on Monday to negotiate a third bailout to keep the near-bankrupt country in the grouping.

Leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has agreed to tough reforms in return for a three-year bailout worth up to euro 86 billion ($96 billion), the country's third rescue programme in five years.

Indian stock markets reacted positively to news of the bailout package, with the benchmark BSE Sensex rising  300 points in intra-day trade.

“(Stock) markets work on sentiment and it is impossible to say what they are reacting to and what they are not reacting to,” Mehrishi said.

He further said an upswing in stock markets would help the government pursue the ambitious disinvestment programme.

“Any rise in market is an opportunity. Any rise in stock prices will boost our disinvestment programme.”

The government proposes to raise Rs 69,500 crore (Rs 695 billion) from disinvestment and strategic stake sale in state-owned companies during the current financial year.

Fielding questions on the rupee, the finance secretary said, “Our exports are impacted by hardening of rupee. So, if the euro doesn’t depreciate much, our imports won’t be affected much.”

Image: Demonstrators gather to protest against the European Central Bank's handling of Greece's debt repayments, in Trafalgar Square in London, Britain June 29, 2015. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters