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Calista241

(5,584 posts)
Mon Feb 13, 2017, 10:55 PM Feb 2017

Germany wants Greece in euro zone, IMF says no special deals

Source: Reuters

Germany on Monday voiced support for Greece to stay in the euro zone and the European Commission dispatched a senior official to Athens to persuade it to take on further reforms to salvage its bailout accord.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, meanwhile, remained firm that as a lender the IMF could not cut any special deals for the crisis-hit country, which has received three bailouts since 2010.

...

The IMF is not party to Greece's current bailout, and says it will not partake until it has assurances Greece will be able to extricate itself from a spiral of debt.

"We have been asked to help, but can only help at terms and conditions that are even-handed. In other words, we cannot cut a special sweet deal for a particular country because it is that country," Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, told Reuters in an interview in Dubai.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-greece-idUSKBN15S1KN

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cstanleytech

(26,080 posts)
1. Greece needs debt forgiveness pure and simple its really the only way they are going to be
Mon Feb 13, 2017, 11:34 PM
Feb 2017

able to start recovering and the debt owners are going to have to suck up the loss because you cannot get blood from a turnip no matter how much you squeeze it.

Javaman

(62,442 posts)
2. exactly right, but more over...
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 09:29 AM
Feb 2017

not only debt forgiveness but their entire tax collecting and governmental accounting practices need to be massively overhauled.

OnDoutside

(19,908 posts)
3. No, not without a massive overhaul of their economy and tax system. You would only be throwing
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 10:38 AM
Feb 2017

good money after bad.

cstanleytech

(26,080 posts)
5. I'm not saying they might not need reform in some or even all of those areas but reform also must
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 01:55 PM
Feb 2017

include debt forgiveness otherwise its just plain cruel to expect them to do said reform yet keep them in a position of crushing debt.

OnDoutside

(19,908 posts)
6. There would be few against doing that, but they've been down a similar route a number of times,
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 07:52 PM
Feb 2017

making promises that they'd change their system but it never happens. What might work is to do so in a piecemeal fashion i.e. a certain amount of change in return for a certain amount of debt forgiveness, then onto the next change and so on.

cstanleytech

(26,080 posts)
7. Have the ones that own the debt agreed to forgive the debt if reform is met? If they have not then I
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 07:59 PM
Feb 2017

can kind of see why the Greek government might show reluctance on reform.

OnDoutside

(19,908 posts)
8. It's the usual nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Those into Greece for big money must
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 08:10 PM
Feb 2017

know they aren't getting most of it back, but Greece must know that they are beyond the last chance saloon.

Yo_Mama

(8,303 posts)
4. This is related to the German election - Merkel needs to stall. CDU/CSU not doing well.
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 12:28 PM
Feb 2017

Greece is in a hopeless situation, and the IMF is quite right.

Germany can either make the loans to Greece that the IMF won't, or agree to write off more debt one way or another. Germany surely knows this, but I imagine the current government would not agree to either until after their election.

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