IMF internal report reveals mistakes in Greek bailout program
The International Monetary Fund made a series of shocking admissions on Thursday regarding mistakes it made in the handling of Greece’s first bailout in 2010.
IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) said in an internal report that it was pressured into joining the first deal to rescue Greece and it did not argue enough in favor of granting debt relief to Greece which, in hindsight, would have been crucial to the success of the program.
IMF managing director Christine Lagarde commented that Greece is “a special case” but did not deny that the Fund had made mistakes nor that it bent its rules to join the program, as the internal report points out.
Despite admitting that the initial goals Greece was expected to achieve were too ambitious, Lagarde goes on to fault the country’s governments for the shortcomings of the first bailout, arguing that the program was undermined by political crises and objections raised by vested interests.
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