2013.06.2105:54:18UTC+00Euro area, IMF say Greek funding assured with reform development

The euro area and the International Monetary Fund stated that Greece is assured of sufficient international support next month as long as the country presses ahead with its economic-overhaul program.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Dutch head of the group of euro-area finance ministers, said European and IMF experts intend to wrap up their latest review of Greece’s budget-cutting progress in July. The austerity is a condition for fresh payouts of aid under a 130 billion-euro ($172 billion) program.

‘Financing Problems’

“The priority remains for the Greek authorities to deliver on the program quickly,” Gerry Rice, an IMF spokesman in Washington, said in a statement yesterday. “If the review is completed by the end of July, as expected, no financing problems will arise because the program is financed till end-July 2014.”

Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras told reporters in Luxembourg yesterday that the government in Athens must push ahead with plans to shrink the public-sector workforce in order to win an 8.1 billion-euro payout for July. He said the sum could carry Greece until early 2014.

Dijsselbloem said the failure of euro-area central banks to roll over Greek debt held in their investment portfolios poses no immediate funding problem for the government in Athens. He said a solution would eventually have to be found to the issue.

“There are various solutions for that,” Dijsselbloem said. “That does not slam an immediate hole in the financing program.”