The Greek government avoided commenting on speculation concerning a request made from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for more cuts to pensions at around 15%, as well as a rejection of a Greek proposal and a government-employment group agreement for an increase to employment contributions. The IMF  did not deny reports in Huffington Post that announced the following:

The IMF has indicated it will resist the Greek government’s plans to achieve required pension savings partly through an increase in employer contributions, according to a source close to negotiations between the Greek government and official creditors. Instead, the source said, the IMF believes pension savings targets can only be reached through pension cuts of 15 percent, on average.

Questioned about the legitimacy of the report, the IMF pointed to statements made by IMF Communications Director Gerry Rice who had said last week that the proposals are being examined and the evaluation process is not complete. Nonetheless, sources in Brussels state that European negotiators are concerned regarding the IMF’s stand.

The reportage by Huffington Post points to the IMF’s European Director Poul Thomsen as the main source of intransigence due to his long “tense relationshiop with the Greek government”. Furthermore, Thomsen is a close ally of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble who has taken the hard line on Greece. Peter Doyle, a former senior manager at the IMF who worked with Thomsen for many years before resigning from the Fund in protest over its management of the Greek debt crisis in 2012 is quoted by the Huffington Post as a man that “does not care” that there is no evidence his approach will work.

A source told the World Post that “Tomsen is playing a not-so-constructive role” and hence, the position of the IMF is “puzzling, and they clearly want to either leave the program or blow the whole thing up.”