Βy Vassilis Kostoulas
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World Bank President Jim Kim reiterated on Thursday that there are "no imminent" plans for a loan towards bailout-dependent Greece, confirming reports by "N" this month that the international development bank considers the prospect of lending to the eurozone member as premature.
Speaking at a press conference a day before the annual spring meetings in Washington D.C. of the World Bank Group and IMF, Kim noted that "... now we are investing through the IFC, our private sector arm, and we have had talks with the Greek government but there are no imminent plans to do this ... any kind of movement like that to provide a loan to Greece would have to be done with the agreement of all the other creditors of Greece, and also by our Board.
Kim reminded that the World Bank is already providing assistance on sectors such as better social protection in the crisis-plagued country, as well as improving bureaucracy-laden Greece's Doing Business ranking in order to combat long-term unemployment.
"So it’s not, there is nothing imminent but we are committed to support Greece in the ways we have been supporting them now for almost five years," he said.
