The second review of Greece’s third bailout program will be completed well ahead of July, maintaining access to official funding, Fitch Ratings said in a press release on Monday, adding that the recurrent tensions between the country and its creditors are already reflected in its sovereign rating, which has been at or below ‘CCC’ for nearly two years.
“The Greek government agrees with the IMF that debt relief is needed, but has objected to the Fund’s position that the government should pre-legislate for specific automatic fiscal correction measures if it misses future primary surplus targets. Even so, the current stand-off appears to be driven more by the inter-creditor disagreement,” Fitch said.
“Press reports suggest that the IMF and the Europeans have taken a common position on the size of the automatic measures, but details remain unclear, as does the Greek government’s response,” it added.
The agency commented that Greece has broadly met program conditions and recorded a primary surplus of 4.4 billion euros in 2016 thanks to higher-than-budgeted revenues. GDP rose 1.8% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2016, the largest annual increase in over eight years.
(source: ana-mpa)
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