Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said his leftist government feels “betrayed” by the IMF, saying the Fund “instead of saying it will not participate in the (Greek bailout) program is asking us for (austerity) measures…”
Tsakalotos was speaking in Parliament during debate for the draft 2017 budget, and days after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced a surprise “Christmas bonus”, totaling 617 million euros, doled out to 1.6 million pensioners.
He added that the Fund does not believe a 3.5-percent annual goal of primary budget surpluses is realistic after 2018.
The UK-based academic, who arrived in Greece to begin a political career with the radical leftist SYRIZA, also charged that the previous ND-led coalition government had agreed to even higher fiscal targets.
In earlier comments during the debate, Tsakalotos also left open the possibility of retaining an automatic spending cut mechanism after 2019, while again confirming that the IMF wants 4.5 billion euros in austerity measures after 2019.
