Germany offered the United States to exchange Greece for Puerto Rico

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble suggested that his US counterpart Jack Lew exchange Greece for Puerto Rico, reports Bloomberg. Schaeuble believes that Americans could accept the Balkan state in the dollar zone, while the Caribbean island will go to the European Monetary Union.

Lew, a settler of Puerto Rican debt settlement, which is 72 billion dollars, considered this statement a joke. For comparison, the debt of Greece on the verge of default reaches 353 billion euros.

Puerto Rico’s largest lenders are private hedge funds, such as Brigade Capital Management and Fir Tree Partners. The main lenders of Greece are the European states and international financial institutions, which significantly complicates the situation.

The economies of both countries are in recession. At the same time, the debt burden of Puerto Rico is less in relative numbers (69 percent of GDP versus 172 percent in Greece). GDP per capita is 28,9 thousands of dollars in Puerto Rico, and in Greece 21,3 thousands of dollars. The island also receives federal grants from Washington worth 6 billions of dollars annually.

The common feature of the two economies is the absence of their own currency, so that none of them will be able to strengthen due to devaluation.

Puerto Rico is a state under US administration. The supreme power on the island belongs to the United States Congress. Puerto Ricans are US citizens, the official currency in the country is the US dollar.