Doubtful: IMF: Greece finance plans not realistic

Greece could maintain a 3.5 per cent budget surplus for years as part of its plan for debt relief from EU creditors

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the fiscal projections underpinning Greece’s proposals for moving ahead in its bailout program are not realistic. Poul Thomsen, director of the IMF’s European Department, raised questions about the forecast that Greece could maintain a 3.5 per cent budget surplus for years as part of its plan for debt relief from European Union creditors. “We question whether it is plausible for a country with such high unemployment and the attendant social pressures to be running such big surpluses over many political cycles to come,” Thomsen said at the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington. Thomsen was speaking after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wrote in an article published in the Financial Times that the IMF should stop tinkering with the country’s latest bailout with European creditors, blaming the global lender for causing a delay in talks.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2016.

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