EU, IMF Clash Over Greek Bailout Handling
Thursday, 01 January 1970
The European Commission clashed with the International Monetary Fund on Thursday over how they handled the first Greek bailout, Reuters reported.
"I think we would all agree that some things could have been done differently," Reuters quoted IMF spokesman Gerry Rice as saying.
One such issue, according to the IMF, was the restructuring of Greek privately held debt already in 2010. "An upfront debt restructuring would have been better for Greece although this was not acceptable to the euro partners," the IMF said in a report.
The European Commission, however, said it had a very different view from the IMF on the feasibility of an early Greek debt restructuring. "The (IMF) report argues that an upfront debt restructuring in 2010 would have been desirable. We fundamentally disagree," Commission spokesman Simon O'Connor said, as quoted by Reuters. The Commission also stressed that the first,110 billion euro rescue for Greece had been arranged in extremely difficult circumstances.