The IMF on Thursday said there was still room for a deal with European institutions to extend further debt relief to Greece, even as the margins for the Fund’s participation as a creditor in the Greek program narrow.
Speaking to reporters in Washington D.C., IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said negotiations with Europeans have reached an advanced state over the past two years, yet differences remain.
Nevertheless, he said the Fund considers that there is still an opportunity for an agreement – a standing demand by the IMF in order to extend more emergency lending to Greece.
An unofficial deadline previously cited by the IMF was February 2018 for debt relief measures, mostly in the medium term.
Although repeatedly vilified by practically all political quarters in Greece, and particularly by the radical leftist SYRIZA and its rightist-populist junior partner in the coalition government, the IMF and Athens are on the same “wavelength” on the point of more debt relief for the country.
The IMF insists that it cannot disburse more money to Greece unless its debt load is rendered sustainable, as per its own calculations and forecasts.
