Troika to return to Athens in early November, IMF says
The EC/ECB/IMF troika of Greece's lenders will return to Athens in early November, a spokesman for the International Monetary Fund said here on Thursday.
William Murray, an IMF spokesman, speaking to reporters said that the troika and Greek authorities were currently in talks over technical issues. He said that Poul Thomsen will represent the IMF in the troika and added that talks will focus on a funding gap and the 2014 state budget and not on the sustainability of the Greek public debt.
Commenting on the possibility of additional fiscal measures, the IMF spokesman reiterated a comment made by IMF’s head, Christine Lagarde, on the sidelines of an IMF/World Bank Summit in Washington recently, that if new measures were needed, it will neither be additional fiscal measures, but reforms of a structural nature, not in the form of additional horizontal measures and cuts in wages or pensions.
Murray said there would be no delays in the fifth assessment of the Greek program by the troika, while he declined to comment on the sustainability of the Greek debt, as well as on the commitment made by the European partners and the implementation of pledges taken by Greece.