Two-thirds of mortgage borrowers enjoy good credit and a fixed interest rate and can depend on the value of their houses remaining far higher than their borrowings.
Across the region, Libor is used as the base rate for roughly two-thirds of all large-scale corporate borrowings, while the remaining one-third is pegged to local benchmarks that are set independently in each country.
Mr. van Vliet noted that Greece remained hobbled by its borrowings and said that there was also a risk that the government in Athens would be unable to keep its promises to reduce expenditure and raise revenue.
In the current year the investment level will reach $9 billion, and the companys borrowings have remained pretty much at the same level.
National borrowings below the 60% level could be switched into "blue" Eurobonds, while the remaining "red" debt would remain the responsibility of individual states.
So long as questions remain about its dependence on government borrowings, the insurer could be hard-pressed to tap the stock and credit markets for fresh capital, he said.
The club's overall debt burden remained stable at £150million, although bank borrowings fell by £25million and were replaced by a loan of the same amount from Ashley, taking the total he has loaned the club to £139.8million, all of it interest-free.
It has £8bn of net borrowings but Pessina said he remained confident about the prospects for the year ahead despite the economic downturn in the UK.
If interbank rates remain stable, they can simply roll over their borrowings.
