The International Monetary Fund, one of Greece’s international lenders, is sending a team back to Greece this month to assess the country΄s performance under an austerity program backed by an international rescue.
The IMF monitors will meet in Athens with Greek and European Union officials in late February, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a news briefing, Agence France-Presse reported. Rice said the IMF mission was expected to wrap up “around mid-March.”
The IMF unblocked a 3.2 billion euros ($4.3 billion) payment to Greece on Jan. 16, lagging European Union aid installments amid concerns about Greece’s lack of progress in structural reforms demanded under a bailout program. If Greece fails to meet the tests, more loan monies could be suspended.
Rice said it was too soon to speculate about another IMF installment of aid, since the latest disbursement was so recent. “We should give some time now for implementation to take place,” he said. In mid-January Poul Thomsen, the IMF΄s mission chief for Greece, said that Greece would need additional help from its European partners as soon as next year to bring its huge debt under control. “There is a gap according to our preliminary projections for 2015-2016” of up to “9.5 billion (euros),” he said.
Under IMF policy, the program needs to be fully financed for the 12 months ahead. The EU and IMF, along with the European Central Bank, are putting up two bailouts of 239 billion euros ($325 billion) in rescue loans to Greece since 2010, but with its economy entering a sixth year of recession Greece is still having trouble making budget ends meet.
Despite two EU-IMF bailouts as well as a private-sector debt cut, the continuing recession and deficits mean that Greece΄s debt is set to continue to rise to 190 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2014. The IMF has been pressing Europe to do more to resolve the Greek debt crisis, after the Fund extended its Greek rescue loan to four years from three years and lowered the interest charged on it.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
