Former Bank of Greece (BoG) governor Giorgos Provopoulos this week said a shocking projection by the IMF that Greece’s public debt would swell to the dizzying heights of 800 percent of GDP by 2060 was already known in 2009.
Former Bank of Greece (BoG) governor Giorgos Provopoulos this week said a shocking projection by the IMF that Greece’s public debt would swell to the dizzying heights of 800 percent of GDP by 2060 was already known in 2009.
The IMF forecast, at the time, mostly gauged Greece’s ballooning social security benefits and beneficiaries in relation to the contributions calculated and the expected growth of the economy over the next five decades.
In an address, Provopoulos said he personally asked IMF officials not to publish the study's findings. He said the issue is not a “new” revelation, as “the issue was known to all from 2009”, given that the study had been posted on the Fund’s website.
In further statements that he subsequently posted on his personal FB account, Provopoulos underlined that “because some people didn’t understand or didn’t understand exactly what I said in my recent address, here is the relevant study by the IMF in July 2009, the names of the authors and the relevant summary on page 15 of the study, particularly the paragraph with the title: Debt”.