May 18, 2011
The International Monetary Fund has warned Greece that it will have to step up the pace of its economic reforms in order to avoid derailing the efforts being made to cut its debt mountain.
Underlining growing concern in Washington at the deteriorating state of Greece's public finances, the IMF's mission chief to Athens, Poul Thomsen, said the emergency bailout package pieced together in May 2010 was failing.
"The view that seems to be taking hold is that the government programme is not working," Thomsen told a conference in Athens on Wednesday .
"The programme will not remain on track without a determined reinvigoration of structural reforms in the coming months. Unless we see this invigoration, I think the programme will run off track."
In the financial markets, Thomsen's comments led to a fall in the value of the euro and an increase in the interest rate Greece has to pay to service its national debt, which has soared to 150% of annual output as the country faces the prospect of a third year of recession.
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