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Disagreements between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
Athens's EU lenders over additional reforms Greece must
implement to achieve its fiscal targets in 2018 are delaying the
first review of its latest bailout, a hurdle the Greeks
desperately need to clear to open the way for debt relief talks.
"This question of time is important if we want to move from a
vicious to a virtuous circle," Finance Minister Euclid
Tsakalotos told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung.
An initial review by a team of international lenders from the
euro zone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier this
year stalled in February over pension reform.
Without agreement from Greece's lenders that it has delivered on
the reforms, the euro zone's finance ministers cannot authorize
the payment of the next tranche of loans to Athens.
"We can't continue debating over pension reforms forever, as if
to keep a wound open," Tsakalotos said. "Pensions are part of
the social safety net."
Tsakalotos called demands by the IMF for further pension cuts
"very surprising", pointing to higher tax yields and a less
severe than expected drop in Greece's gross domestic product.
Last week, Tsakalotos said that pensions had been cut 11 times
since Greece signed its first bailout in 2010 and that Athens
could not lower them any more.
"I also don't see a reason why we shouldn't be able to return to
very healthy growth rates of more than 3 percent per year,"
Tsakalotos said when asked about the impact of Europe's refugee
crisis and a global economic slowdown.
(Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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