By economicsgazette
The position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Greek debt has not changed. The IMF still consider that the Greek debt has to be restructured to allows sustainable development of the country’s economy, confirmed the director of the Fund, Christine Lagarde.
The restructuring of the Greek debt is a controversial moment for which the country’s creditors can not agree for months. The European institutions insist that sharpening is not necessary until the Fund insists that there is no other way ahead of Greece.
“We need to agree on this issue so we can move on. On my forecasts, this can happen from the beginning of the next year”, told Christine Lagarde.
Athens is about to close the third review of the program quickly, and the country is already preparing for final agreements with creditors before the end of the bailout. According to the issue, the government will prepare a package of nearly 100 measures to be approved by parliament. With these suggestions Greece plans to meet all reform demands.
These measures do not provide for cuts in costs but affect sensitive topics such as the sale of mortgaged properties with outstanding contributions. This leads observers to comment that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is probably under pressure from his people to demand early elections this spring.
Another option is to make a certain shift in the government in January.
These scenarios are likely after the Eurogroup meeting on January 22, 2018, which is expected to formally reach the agreement on the Third Rescue Program Review, which will provide the country with 5.5 billion EUR. It is unlikely that the government will take anything before that date so as not to fail the negotiations with the creditors.
The mandate of the SYRIZA expires at the end of 2019.
