The International Monetary Fund, one of Greece’s Troika of lenders, will send a team to Greece early in June for talks with Greek authorities and the bailout partners, the European Union and European Central Bank, following a meeting of the IMF executive board to discuss a review of Greece΄s program.
“The executive board is expected to meet next week, Friday, May 31, to discussion the completion of the third review of Greece’s program,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters during a regular press briefing in Washington on May 23.
“A staff team will start discussions in Athens with the Greek authorities and our European partners on June 4. These discussions are expected to last about two weeks and Poul Thomsen will be leading the mission,” he said, referring to the IMF’s mission chief to Greece.
Earlier this month, the Eurogroup approved the disbursement of €7.5billion ($9.72 billion) of bailout funds after noting that Greece has achieved “full implementation” of recent measures following an earlier review process although it also said Greece hadn’t achieved full implementation of recent measures, such as going after tax evaders who have remained largely untouched although they owe more than $70 billion.
It added that it noted “with satisfaction” that Greece has made further substantial progress in implementing the fiscal and structural reforms but also that there was little progress in other areas, including the lagging pace of privatization.
The announcement came after a European Commission report said that Greece outperformed its 2012 fiscal goals and is on track to meet its 2013-2014 bailout requirements. However, it added that further savings would be required for the country to meet its 2014-2016 obligations, apparently contradicting government assurances that the recent omnibus bill paving the way for largescale public sector job cuts would be the last round of austerity. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said he wouldn’t impose any more, although he has said that previously but did anyway.
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