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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-02-07
CONTENTS
[01] Tsakalotos: IMF report does not reflect Greece's real economic
situation
[01] Tsakalotos: IMF report does not reflect Greece's real economic
situation
The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) economic forecasts on Greece
do not reflect the actual picture of the country's economy, Finance
Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said in a letter attached to the fund's
report on the Greek economy )article IV), published on Tuesday.
"Despite the evidence and analysis presented, we note that the report
is not fair in many areas, while many conclusions are not consistent
with the recent and well-documented empirical data," the minister says.
"Firstly, the report presents an overall picture of (Greece's) reform
effort which is not representative of the actual effort made by the Greek
government during the ESM program. The implementation of structural
reforms accelerated significantly, particularly of deep reforms, such
as the consolidation of pension funds into a single fund, the overall
pension reform, the creation of an independent tax authority, many product
market reforms (including significant progress in the introduction of
OECD recommendations) and a wide-ranging reform program," he writes.
Concerning budgetary developments, Tsakalotos said initial indications
show that the budget surplus for 2016 will be around 2 percent of
GDP. "Despite important budgetary over-performance, the IMF analysis does
not proceed in a major revision of budget surpluses for 2018 and beyond,
remaining at the forecast for 1.5 pct, despite the overwhelming evidence
to the contrary," he said.
Aside from the need for budget revisions, the significant budget surplus
in 2016 questions three important arguments in the report, Tsakalotos
continues. "The most important argument, that Greece cannot maintain high
budget surpluses above 1.5 pct of GDP, contradicts recent developments."
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