The IMF Leaves, But Greece’s Rescue Isn’t Over
The country shouldn’t be forced to keep paying indefinitely for mistakes it didn’t make alone.
Clouds on the horizon.
Photographer: Yorgos Karahalis/BloombergThe announced closure of the International Monetary Fund’s office in Athens feels like a landmark, even though Greece, unlike many other crisis-hit nations in recent decades, was emphatically not bailed out by the IMF. It’s a moment to reflect on whether Greece really has been bailed out by anyone.
Technically, Greece is no longer a country in crisis. It’s more indebted relative to its economic output than any other European Union member state: Its debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 180.2% at the end of the second quarter last year, compared with an EU total of 80.5%, and there is no significant downward trend. But the European Commission sees the debt burden as sustainable and projects that it will drop to 100% of GDP by 2041. A 2018 deal, which smoothed out Greece’s repayments, helped greatly with that.