IMF: Another Greek bailout will cost €52bn
Bailing out Greece for another three years will cost €52bn, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today, as Greeks prepared to vote on reform proposals by the country's creditors.
A new debt sustainability analysts by the IMF showed interest payments will cost €4.9bn over the next 12 months, rising to €17.2bn over the next three years.
In a rather snarky aside, it added: "If the [austerity] programme had been implemented as assumed, no further debt relief would have been needed."
"At the time of the last review in May 2014, public debt dynamics were considered to be sustainable but highly vulnerable," said the report. At the time, it suggested debts will continue to be substantially higher than GDP at least until 2022, when they'll fall below a debt to GDP ratio of 110 per cent.
However, the government's decision to halt the austerity programme has made the situation much worse.
Since [the previous report] was prepared, the Greek authorities have closed the banking sector, imposed capital controls, and incurred arrears to the IMF. These developments are likely to have a significant adverse economic and financial impact.
