IMF Supports Greece Request for an Extension

The Head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde backs the time extension requested by Greece. It is no surprise that Germany has denied the extension.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) head, Christine Lagarde, has backed calls for Greece to have more time to meet the targets of its bailout.

She said in a BBC debate held in Tokyo that this might be better than “frontloading heavily”, or making Greece pay the most upfront.

But the biggest contributor to Greece's bailouts, Germany, rebuffed the idea.

“We have to stick to what we announced,” Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble replied.

Greece has asked for two more years to meet the spending cuts demanded by its lenders, which include the eurozone countries through its bailout funds and also the IMF.

Ms Lagarde backed the calls, but Mr Schaeuble stuck to Germany's previous line that on the terms of the 130bn-euro (£105bn; $168bn) bailout – Greece's second since 2010 – Athens must be held to what it agreed.

via BBC