The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given an assurance that “all partners share the same objective” to rescue Greece’s economy.
“All partners share the same objective and concern to make sure Greece is back on track and can return to economic stability as soon as possible,” its managing director Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday, even as she clashed with eurozone finance ministers earlier this week on deficit targets for the debt-stricken nation.
“From the IMF’s perspective, we expect a real fix, not a quick fix, and for the debt to return to a sustainable level,” she told the press at the start of her three-country tour of Southeast Asia.
AFP reported today that Lagarde and Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker had “clashed openly” in a rare public disagreement on Greece’s bailout schedule.
Lagarde had insisted that Greece should stick to its original target of trimming its debt-to-gross domestic product to 120% from some 170% currently by 2020, while eurozone finance ministers are considering extending the deadline to 2022 amid crippling austerity protests in the southern European state.
(source: AFP, thestar)
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