Brussels, 10/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 10 October, the Greek finance minister reacted to the International Monetary Fund's fiscal monitoring report noting a need for structural measures worth 3.5% of GDP by 2016 in order to meet the country's budget obligations.
In a press release, the minister said the Greek government would not comment on reports from international bodies like the IMF, not even when it admitted mistakes in its projections when preparing the original economic programme for Greece. In 2012, Greece overshot its budget targets in primary terms, and the recent update of the aid programme did not find any gaps in the budget for 2013-2014, he explained.
The troika's follow-up mission (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF), which is currently suspended, is expected to shed light on the Greek budget situation.
The IMF report says that Greece will have a primary budget surplus of 1.1% of GDP in 2014, although the most recent follow-up report suggests a surplus of 1.5% for the same period. The IMF says that the public debt forecasts assume the implication of the official sector (a writedown) to reduce the ratio of debt to GDP to 124% in 2010. Europe might not be happy about this wording because at the moment, it is refusing to consider a writedown on publicly owned Greek bonds, suggesting instead that a reduction in interest rates might be possible. (EL/transl.fl)