Greece’s representative to the IMF, Michalis Psalidopoulos, on Friday said an upcoming report by the Fund on Greece will be more “positive than the previous one”, a closely watched report that will include a debt sustainability analysis.
Speaking on Parliament’s television channel, he also left open the possibility of a “renegotiation” of another round of pension cuts – due to come on line on Jan. 1, 2018 – and which the Greek government has already agreed to with creditors, as far back as 2016.
He also opined that a Eurogroup decision earlier this month guarantees the sustainability of the Greek debt, at least in the medium term – echoing the IMF’s position. The Fund’s leadership, however, has standing concerns over the sustainability of the debt in the long term.
“The agreement puts the debt issue in a secure course, at least until 2032-33,” he said.
Psalidopoulos, who taught economics at Tufts between 2010-2014, was nominated as Greece’s representative to the IMF back in June 2015, by then Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, and at height of a crisis between the Tsipras leftist-rightist coalition government and the country’s institutional creditors.
The government ordered capital controls in late June 2015 after announcing a controversial referendum – on a withdrawn offer by creditors – in the wake of shambolic negotiations with creditors over the previous five months.
