IMF: Greek debt sustainable despite pandemic-linked spike
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The International Monetary Fund said Monday that Greece's huge public debt remains sustainable in the medium term despite “unprecedented uncertainty” to all sectors of the economy because of the pandemic.
Following completion of a new round of monitoring discussions with Athens, the IMF said Greece's economy is expected to contract 9.5% this year before expanding 5.7% in 2021. The public debt will reach a record high 208% of gross domestic product this year before decreasing to 199% in 2021 — compared to an already high 181% in 2019.
The IMF, together with Greece's European bailout creditors, continues to monitor the economy beyond the end of the acute 2010-2018 financial crisis and rescue loan program that kept the country afloat after it lost access to international markets.
It said the medium-term economic recovery would be “supported by a recovery in private consumption, investment linked to privatization and the first tranches of (European Union) grants, and higher goods exports.”
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