The Greek government might have struck a deal with its creditors during Monday’s Eurogroup meeting and presented it as a success to the public, but specific pledges for any debt relief will be pushed back till 2018, when the current economic program is completed. The final statement did refer to a debt relief in a general way in an effort to get the IMF to remain on board the Greek program. As Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said after the meeting, ‘Such measures could be taken, if necessary, at the end of the program, so not before 2018’. It is the first time a Eurogroup statement is riddled with so many ‘ifs and conditions’. The IMF seems unconvinced the measures could counterbalance the need for a proper debt restructuring and its presence is still an open issue. As Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos pointed out the Fund is quite pressing for a debt relief. The question that arises is if the IMF decides to leave the Greek program who will push for a debt relief, which is the main goal of the Greek government. The head of the Eurogroup made it clear that the Europeans would not proceed with the program if the IMF bailed out of the program, as ‘there are member states that consider its presence very significant’, said Dijsselbloem. The irony is that both the Greek side and its Europeaan creditors want the IMF to remain for different reasons. The Greek government went so far as to table the automatic spending cuts, which are the basis of talks on the extra measures to be implemented, in order to keep the fund on board which is the only institution pushing for a debt cut. The Tsipras government is trying to defer legislating the 3.6bln Euro prior actions.
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