Greek financial situtation will be “normal” after program ends, says IMF’s Gerry Rice




The International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomes Eurogroup decisions on Greece’s debt relief and believes it will reduce the country’s financial risks in the mid term, Fund spokesman Gerry Rice said during a press briefing on Thursday.

The fund will continue to support Greece through the post-program surveillance, which is very normal for every country concluding a program, he said. It will be involved with checking the results and application process of agreed policies. The post-program surveillance, he noted, is a very normal process for the IMF and was applied in Portugal, Ireland, Cyprus and other countries of the world. The reviews (Article IV consultations) will take place on a lot more flexible basis than the adjustment program’s quarterly reviews, he added.

“There is an Article IV consultation underway right now in Athens with the Greek authorities and the IMF staff,” Rice said. “We expect that to conclude tomorrow (Friday), when we will be offering our preliminary views,” he added, and the chief of IMF’s mission in Greece, Peter Dolman, will give a briefing in Athens the same day.

IMF’s spokesman said that the debt sustainability analysis (DSA) will be part of the Article IV process. “ That will not be something that we will release tomorrow. But it will be released with the staff report on the usual way,” he pointed out. The full staff report will go to the IMF’s Executive Board in the normal way for discussion, and will include the IMF’s DSA. It will then “be released in public in the usual way along with the staff report,” he explained.

Rice said he did not have a date for the staff concluding statement or the staff report, as it normally it takes several weeks for the staff report to be finalized. “However, I would expect this to happen (…) Our board is in recess towards the end of July, and I would expect to happen before then,” he added.

Source: AMNA

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