IMF’s Lagarde to Recommend $36.7 Billion Contribution to Greece Bailout

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said today that she plans to recommend 28 billion euros ($36.7 billion) in financial aid for Greece to support that country’s “ambitious economic program over the next four years.”

The 28 billion euros that Lagarde is proposing includes 9.7 billion euros that remained from a previous support package approved in May 2010, the IMF said in an e-mailed statement today. The entire 28 billion euros will need to be approved by the IMF executive board.

“Restoring competitiveness and a sustainable fiscal position will require Greece to undertake sustained and deep structural reforms over a prolonged period,” Lagarde said in a separate statement in Washington. “The scale and length of the fund’s support is a reflection of our determination to remain engaged.”

Greece pushed through the biggest sovereign restructuring in history after getting private investors to forgive more than 100 billion euros of debt, opening the way for the second bailout.

Euro-region finance ministers agreed that with the swap Greece had met the terms for a 130 billion-euro rescue package arranged with the IMF. Ministers freed up 35.5 billion euros in payments and interest for bondholders, with a decision on the balance of the bailout funds to be made at a March 12 meeting in Brussels.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Costelloe in Brussels at kcostelloe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net