Greece: Selected Issues
IMF Staff Country Reports, February 7, 2017
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- Greece: Selected Issues
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Bibliographic details
- Published: February 7, 2017
- Series: IMF Staff Country Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781475575743.002
Executive summary
- The Selected Issues paper analyzes insolvency and enforcement issues in Greece.
- The Greek insolvency and creditor rights framework has improved since the onset of the crisis as a result of successive reforms.
- Nonetheless, the framework remains underutilized, fragmented, and distortive, and is not supported by an adequate institutional setting.
- Many reforms undertaken in recent years were not part of a coordinated and comprehensive nonperforming loan resolution strategy, but were instead piecemeal and taken without proper stakeholder consultation and impact analysis.
- Frequent and uncoordinated reforms have undermined legal predictability and certainty.
- If left unaddressed, this situation of distress affects enterprises, households and financial and public creditors by preventing investment, credit, and consumption from recovering.
Key findings
- Improvements have occurred in the insolvency and creditor rights framework since the crisis, driven by successive reforms.
- The framework remains:
- underutilized,
- fragmented,
- distortive,
- unsupported by an adequate institutional setting.
- Reforms were often:
- piecemeal,
- implemented without proper stakeholder consultation,
- implemented without impact analysis,
- not part of a coordinated and comprehensive nonperforming loan resolution strategy.
- Frequent and uncoordinated reforms have undermined legal predictability and certainty.
Consequences and risks
- Continued distress in the insolvency and enforcement framework risks:
- preventing investment from recovering,
- preventing credit from recovering,
- preventing consumption from recovering,
- adversely affecting enterprises, households, and financial and public creditors.
Implied policy directions (as indicated by the analysis)
- Establish a coordinated and comprehensive nonperforming loan resolution strategy.
- Improve stakeholder consultation and conduct impact analysis prior to reforms.
- Strengthen the institutional setting supporting insolvency and creditor rights.
- Restore legal predictability and certainty by reducing frequent, uncoordinated reforms.
Content in this bundle
- Country Report