European Leaders say the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is Useless
Feb 9, 2010 | Posted by bryan in Featured, Investment & Finance | 0 Comments
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IMF Help Not Needed, say Europeans
European leaders have said at last week’s G7 meeting that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should not yet step in to assist in the Greek financial crisis.
At the meeting of world leaders, Europe’s biggest economies declared their intent to let the Greeks work it out themselves – despite the impending threat to weaker countries in the eurozone.
Greece currently has a budget deficit of almost 13 per cent under gross domestic product – a figure which it pledged last week that it will bring into line by 2012 with other EU countries, which must remain under three per cent of GDP.
Greek prime minister George Papandreou has already announced reduced spending plans for the government, a freeze on public sector hiring and plans to raise fuel taxes, in order to meet the new budgetary targets.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the IMF, said: “I have a mission on the ground to provide technical advice requested by the Greek government. And if we’re asked to intervene, we will.
“I understand that the Europ¬eans don’t want this for the moment.”
The European Commission has so far resisted IMF intervention because of the political currency it would give the US, according to Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform.
He told journalists at the event: “The IMF is very experienced in these matters; it is professional and is not subject to political pressure. There is a political point as well.
“If the commission sets conditions that lead to hospitals being closed, there will be demos against Brussels. If the IMF does it, the demos will be against the fund.”
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