Press Release No. 18/252

Statement by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Greece

June 21, 2018

Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today at the conclusion of the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg:

“We commend Greece and its European partners on the completion of the fourth and final review under the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) program. The additional debt relief measures announced today will mitigate Greece’s medium-term refinancing risks and improve its medium-term debt prospects, both of which are very welcome results. This will be good for Greece and good for the euro area.

“We also take note of the commitment by Greece’s European partners to keep debt sustainability under review and to take additional debt relief measures if needed. This would provide important safeguards if the more optimistic long-run macroeconomic assumptions of the European institutions were not realized.

“We will examine the sustainability of Greece’s debt in the course of our upcoming Article IV Consultation with Greece, which starts next week.

“While time has clearly run out to enter into a Stand-by Arrangement, we will remain fully engaged in supporting Greece in sustaining its economic recovery and achieving more robust growth in the post-program period. IMF engagement will include post-program monitoring, which has been used in other similar cases, notably Cyprus, Ireland and Portugal.”