The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board on Friday approved the disbursement of 3.41 billion euros to Greece, as part of the country’s bailout programme.

The amount is part of a joint package of financing with eurozone member-states totalling around 173 billion over four years. The new tranche will bring the total IMF disbursements to date to about 11.5 billion euros.
During their meeting to complete the fifth review of Greece’s performance, drafted by IMF mission chief in Greece Poul Thomsen.

Following the meeting, IMF Deputy Managing Director Naoyuki Shinohara said that Greece had “made significant progress in consolidating the fiscal position and rebalancing the economy.”

He added that “the primary fiscal position is in surplus ahead of schedule, and Greece has gone from having the weakest to the strongest cyclically-adjusted primary fiscal balance in the euro area in just four years,” but warned that there were “several challenges” before Greece could return to “a sustainable, balanced growth path.”

The IMF official said that additional fiscal adjustment was necessary to ensure debt sustainability and said that authorities had to “continue to improve tax collection, combat evasion, and strengthen expenditure control. Public administration reforms need to be accelerated.”

Naoyuki Shinohara reiterated that the IMF welcomed European pledges of further support to Greece. Under its rules, the IMF cannot continue to lend to countries if it believes their debt is unsustainable.