IMF insists on debt relief – derStandard.at

Washington / Athens – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues even after the agreement on the Greece aid package on substantial debt relief for Athens. IMF head Christine Lagarde said on Friday, the third aid program was “a very important step” forward. The debt burden is but “unsustainable” for Greece, it said in a written statement.

More debt relief was needed. They also left open whether the IMF mitmache at the new utilities. Lagarde was switched on during the discussions in Greece and the euro-zone countries on Friday in Brussels via video link.

It is further stated in its statement that it expected that the Europeans at a first review of the program concrete commitments and “decisive debt relief make” that went well above previous considerations.

Looking for solutions

The IMF will and in the coming months with the Europeans Greece work together to find solutions, so that they can “further financial assistance to Greece” recommend the IMF leadership. It’ll be important that “all the necessary elements” of the aid to be considered, she said, apparently with a view to debt relief.

The IMF is well established on debt relief for Greece, as the country otherwise is not out of the crisis come out. In an internal study measures up to the debt restructuring (“haircut”) were brought into play.

Schäuble insists on reforms

Germany Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU), however, warns Greek government before it, not to achieve the agreed reforms consistently. The “Bild am Sonntag” said Schäuble: “These reforms must now be implemented in every respect We shall pay any more help will be dependent on it…”

At the same time there was a lot of praise from Schäuble and Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) for the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. “After arduous negotiations really have been in Greece now understood that the land around real and radical reforms not be ignored”, said Schäuble. Steinmeier told the newspaper: “Negotiations have been conducted professionally and swiftly, Mr Tsipras has shown that he is ready to join his political fate with the euro-membership of Greece.”

The parliamentary secretary of the SPD Parliamentary Group, Christine Lambrecht, the approval of the Social Democrats in the Bundestag vote on Wednesday announced: “The SPD parliamentary group’s solidarity with the people of Greece, so I start from a broad approval of the SPD deputies..” (APA, 15.8.2015)