According to an International Monetary Fund economist, Greece could exit its financial crisis by 2013. Poul Thomsen told the newspaper “To Vima” that Greece should strengthen its efforts to diminish wide spread tax evasion and boost state revenues.
“There must be decisiveness on improving the tax collection mechanism. It is a matter of political will. You can’t implement a program of fiscal discipline, throwing all the burden to pensioners and employees.” Thomsen stated.
Thomsen added that the opening up of “closed” professions is one of the most important reforms Greece should make because it will have an immediate positive impact on the growth of the national economy. Concerning the prospect of a wave of dismissals of civil servants to slash state expenditures, Thomsen said restructuring of the Greek public sector should be done with social responsibility.
The delegation of Troika experts under Thomsen just completed its visit to Athens this week. They will officially submit a positive first progress report on the implementation of The Greek Stability and Growth Program to The European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF headquarters later this month. They expect to approve the release of the second tranche of financial aid to Greece this September in the framework of the three year support package to tackle the economic crisis.
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