The Minister of Finances Gikas Hardouvelis, along with his predecessor and Governor of the Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras, met with the chief of the IMF Christine Lagarde in Washington on Sunday.
According to the press release the two sides discussed the development of the Greek aid program, along with the possible next moves to be taken. Mrs. Lagarde praised the Greek authorities for the significant fiscal improvement and urged them to continue implemented the essential reforms, as outlined in the Greek program.
Mr. Hardouvelis commented that the “first step” towards exiting the bailout program has been taken, noting that the “post-bailout” relationship of Greece with the IMF will entail a prolonged negotiation and a huge national effort. The Finance Minister stated that the “interesting discussion” concerned both “today and tomorrow” and that the IMF would support the Greek efforts.
The Greek program is going to be discussed at the Eurogroup session taking place in Brussels on Monday. The Minister of Finances is expected to reiterated Greece’s position, namely to exit the program without collecting the remaining 12.8 billion euros from the IMF. Mr. Hardouvelis will however stress that Athens will fulfill its commitments towards the EU and IMF in the 5th review, in order to collect 7.1 billion euros.
