IMF resists a return to still-struggling Greece

AFP, WASHINGTON: The Euro-peans want it and Athens is resigned to its presence.
But the International Monetary Fund has still not decided whether it will participate in the third financial bailout for Greece, and continues to set out its conditions.
“We have not decided anything in the financial sense on a possible participation,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in an interview published Friday.
In 2010 and again in 2012, the world’s crisis lender was a key member of the “troika” behind the rescue plans for Greece, together with the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
Deeply worried over a meltdown of the eurozone, the IMF had gone so far as to create a special “systemic exception” that allowed it to go beyond its loan limit rules in special situations. It then committed its largest loan in history to Athens, eventually close to 50 billion euros ($55 billion)
in total.
The IMF then took a central role in setting the terms for Athens’s rescue, dictating economic reforms and instituting financial discipline, which included a harsh dose of austerity, in return for its involvement.
But the times have changed, even as the country remains in recession after five years under the stewardship of the troika.

IMF resists a return to still-struggling Greece

AFP, WASHINGTON: The Euro-peans want it and Athens is resigned to its presence. But the International Monetary Fund has still not decided whether it will participate in the third financial bailout for Greece, and continues to set out its conditions. We have not decided anything in the financial sense on a possible participation, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in an interview published Friday. In 2010 and again in 2012, the worlds crisis lender was a key member of the troika behind the rescue plans for Greece, together with the European Commission and the European Central Bank. Deeply worried over a meltdown of the eurozone, the IMF had gone so far as to create a special systemic exception that allowed it to go beyond its loan limit rules in special situations. It then committed its largest loan in history to Athens, eventually close to 50 billion euros ($55 billion) in total. The IMF then took a central role in setting the terms for Athenss rescue, dictating economic reforms and instituting financial discipline, which included a harsh dose of austerity, in return for its involvement. But the times have changed, even as the country remains in recession after five years under the stewardship of the troika.