IMF mulls Greece repayment extension
2011-05-13 11:18:04
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is still willing to consider giving Greece "more time" to repay its loan as the country struggles with a debt crisis, an IMF spokeswoman said Thursday.
"As we have said for some months, there was a question of whether the program for Greece should be extended to give more time, whether it should switch to an extended-fund facility" or EFF, spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said at a news briefing in Washington.
"If Greece needs more time to get to a position where they are finished with the program, EFF allows for a longer period," she said.
The 30-billion-euro ($42.7 billion) IMF loan extended to Greece in May 2010 calls for repayments through 2015. The EFF, a loan program used for countries facing longer-term economic adjustments, would extend the repayment schedule to 2020.
Atkinson said the interest rate would remain the same for Greece.
In November, Greece sought an extension of the debt repayment, and IMF officials, including managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, have indicated their support.
But the IMF's executive board, comprised of 24 countries and groups of countries, has not acted.
The 30-billion-euro loan was the IMF's biggest ever and was a part of a larger 110-billion-euro ($156.6 billion) support package from the European Union.
The possibility of a delay in repayment of the EU-IMF loan for Greece was first mooted when the two agreed in November on a bailout for Ireland that had a considerably longer repayment period.
Atkinson noted that before the IMF takes any program to the executive board, there is a judgment on debt sustainability.
She declined to comment on the IMF's ongoing discussions with Greek authorities in Athens.
A top IMF official said Thursday that the latest aid review did not point to Greece having to restructure its debt, noting the country had assets worth several hundred billion euros which it could sell.
The next IMF review of Greek aid is due in June but "at this point, on the basis of our program, we think that Greece should be moving in the right direction to a position where its debt is sustainable," said Antonio Borge, the IMF director for Europe.
It "therefore does not require restructuring," he said.