The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that it might decide to participate financially in Greece’s third bailout program by year-end, Reuters reports.
IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters during a press briefing that the decision will depend on discussions now under way in Athens between an IMF mission and Greek authorities as well as parallel discussions with Greece’s European creditors.
Rice reiterated the IMF position that the fiscal targets for Greece in the current European loan program – primary budget surplus of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2018 – are too ambitious.
The IMF could participate financially in a program with a surplus target of 1.5 percent of GDP along with debt relief and fiscal and economic reforms, he said, adding, “If Greece and its partners want to pursue a more ambitious target, we would need to see the reforms that make it add up,” the Reuters report concludes.
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