FRANKFURT (MNI) – The following is a statement by International
Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde following the
Eurogroup finance ministers meeting Monday on Greece:
I welcome the initiatives agreed today by the Eurogroup aimed at
further supporting Greece’s economic reform program and making a
substantial contribution to the sustainability of its debt. This builds
on the significant efforts by the Greek government to carry forward its
fiscal and structural reform agenda.
The initiatives include Greek debt buybacks, return of Securities
Market Programme (SMP) profits to Greece, reduction of Greek Loan
Facility (GLF) interest rates, significant extension of GLF and European
Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) maturities, and the deferral of EFSF
interest rate payments.
Taken together, these measures will help to bring back Greece’s
debt ratio to a sustainable path and facilitate a gradual return to
market financing. The debt ratio is expected to decrease to 124 percent
of GDP by 2020 through significant upfront debt reduction measures of 20
percent of GDP. In addition, I welcome the commitment by European
partners to bring back Greece’s debt to substantially below 110 percent
of GDP by 2022, conditional on full implementation of the program by
Greece. This represents a major debt reduction for Greece relative to
its current debt trajectory.
Once progress has been made on specifying and delivering on the
commitments made today, in particular implementation of the debt
buybacks, I would be in a position to recommend to the IMF Executive
Board the completion of the first review of Greece’s program.”
–Frankfurt newsroom +49 69 72 01 42; e-mail: ccermak@mni-news.com
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