The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) chief economist Olivier Blanchard said that Greece’s 3% budget surplus target in 2015 is not realistic. In an interview with the French financial newspaper Les Echos, Blanchard said that lowering the surplus would create new financing needs and Greece would once again need European help. He said that that could work only if Greece presented a coherent program.

He said that “credible measures” were required to transform the substantial budget deficit, shown in recent estimates, into a surplus that could be maintained in the future.