BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Cyprus, crippled by its exposure to Greece, should get an international bailout by the end of March, but it is too early to say exactly how it would be structured, a senior euro zone official told Reuters on Wednesday.
Thomas Wieser, who heads the Eurogroup Working Group, a group of senior officials who prepare decisions of euro zone finance ministers, said while no details of the bailout were decided yet, he believed Cyprus' debt could be made sustainable without a sovereign debt restructuring or forcing bank depositors to take losses.
Cyprus is badly in need of a bailout of around 17 billion euros -- almost the size of its gross domestic product -- mainly because of the devastating effect the sovereign Greek debt restructuring had on the oversized Cypriot banking sector. (Reporting by Martin Santa and Eva Kuehnen)
