ATHENS: Greece may need even more debt relief and financing from its eurozone creditors than the International Monetary Fund estimated less than a week ago, the IMF’s chief economist said in comments likely to further complicate the country’s efforts to win a new emergency bailout.
In a report published last week, the fund said Greece would need more than EUR60 billion ($66 billion) in new aid to cover its growing budget shortfalls, as well as substantial debt relief through bond maturity extensions “at a minimum” to return the country to health.
But that review of Greece’s debt was prepared before Greece’s government called a surprise referendum challenging the creditors’ bailout terms, a move that subsequently forced Athens to implement growth-suffocating capital controls. The country has just a few short days worth of cash to fund operations and capital controls are the only thing preventing a complete collapse of the financial system.
