Brussels, 13/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 28 May, the International Monetary Fund's board will meet to give the go-ahead to IMF aid for Greece, according to a report in Greek newspaper Ekathimerini.
The initial timing suggested that the decision would be made on 16 May, but the newspaper says this has been delayed because the Greek government has not yet implemented a number of prior actions.
Last week, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said that troika technical teams (which include the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank) will be returning to Athens in June or July although the assessment mission is not due to start officially until after the summer holidays. The troika experts will be examining the viability of the Greek debt.
Gerry Rice said: “On debt, as you know, as we've said here many times, Greece's European partners have agreed to provide debt relief as necessary, and contingent on Greece being fully on track with meeting its program commitments”. The aim is for a debt/GDP ratio of 175% in 2016, 124% in 2020 and substantially below 110% in 2022.
The European Commission predicts that Greek debt will fall to 172.4% of GDP in 2016, in line with the target. The first troika monitoring report showed that despite the measures laid down in 2012 to reduce the debt (details of which have not yet been given) the end target will not be reached. The Commission says: “After peaking at around 177% of GDP in 2014, Greece's debt-to-GDP is expected to gradually decline to around 125 % of GDP in 2020 and around 112 % of GDP in 2022. That's assuming measures worth 2.7 and 1.4 % of GDP as set out in the table on page 54 of the Dec 2012 report, spread out over the coming years.” Further analysis of the debt trajectory by the next troika mission will shed light on this question. (EL)