zerohedge.com / by Tyler Durden / 04/04/2016 07:15 -0400
Whether or not the IMF intended to use a Greek credit event to destabilize Europe as the Greek government first alleged, or whether this was “nonsense” as Lagarde responded to Tsipras letter, is irrelevant – ultimately the underlying premise was whether or not Greece gets debt relief, something the IMF has been insisting on since the third bailout package. And as is well-known, it was Germany – not Greece – that stood in the IMF’s way.
So after a terse weekend in which relations between Greece and the IMF devolved once again to frigidly sub-zero levels, moments ago Germany chimed in with its position, which can be summed up in another familiar word: “nein“.
As Bloomberg reports, citing spokesman Martin Jaeger, “Greek debt relief isn’t on the agenda right now”, adding that the “priority is to put Greek budget on sustainable footing.” He also said that Greece already has historically low repayment costs on bailout loans, and that “we remain confident that we can achieve progress, though there’s still quite a bit of work to do.”
Finally, he said that we “don’t see why we can’t complete review before Orthodox Easter.”
Additionally, the German chief govt spokesman Steffen Seibert said in response to reporter’s question whether they discussed IMF-Greece relations Merkel, that Tsipras spoke by phone on Sunday to discuss “a variety of issues.” He made it clear that Merkel government position on IMF participation in Greek aid program and debt relief hasn’t changed.
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