IMF: Current Greek projections not realistic

The International Monetary Fund said on Friday 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 percent 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 IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington.

“So we are cautioning that… the debt relief needs to be calibrated on something that we think is more realistic.”

Thomsen was speaking after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said 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.

[AFP]