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Greece Demands Response To IMF Debt Default Leak

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Now I do not trust WikiLeaks for a second. Assange has done some great work but he has an agenda (just my two cents). That said the latest document is incredibly damning and if true wow. Also, while Greece is not a neutral party here the fact that they have asked the IMF for a response seems to indicate they believe (or at least are pretending to believe) that these documents are true. My guess is that this story is just starting now. See the latest below from the direct source itself. Basically, the IMF was possibly threatening to pull out of the Greek bailout to force Germany to offer more debt relief.

Below are some excerpts followed by the document

THOMSEN: Well, I don’t know. But this is… I think about it differently. What is going to bring it all to a decision point? In the past there has been only one time when thedecision has been made and then that was when they were about to run out of money seriously and to default. Right?

 

VELKOULESKOU: Right!

 

THOMSEN: And possibly this is what is going to happen again. In that case, it drags on until July, and clearly the Europeans are not going to have any discussions for a month before the Brexits and so, at some stage they will want to take a break and then they want to  start again after the European referendum.

 

VELKOULESKOU: That’s right.

 

THOMSEN: That is one possibility. Another possibility is one that I thought would have happened already and I am surprised that it has not happened, is that, because of the refugee situation, they take a decision… that they want to come to a conclusion. Ok? And the Germans raise the issue of the management… and basically we at that time say “Look, you Mrs. Merkel you face a question, you have to think about what is more costly: to go ahead without the IMF, would the Bundestag say ‘The IMF is not on board’? or to pick the debt relief that we think that Greece needs in order to keep us on board?” Right? That is really the issue.

 

* * *

VELKOULESKOU: I agree that we need an event, but I don’t know what that will be. But I think Dijsselbloem is trying not to generate an event, but to jump start this discussion somehow on debt, that essentially is about us being on board or not at the end of the day.

 

THOMSEN: Yeah, but you know, that discussion of the measures and the discussion of the debt can go on forever, until some high up.. until they hit the July payment or until the leaders decide that we need to come to an agreement. But there is nothing in there that otherwise is going to force a compromise. Right? It is going to go on forever.

19 March 2016 IMF Teleconference on Greece WikiLeaks release: April, 2nd 2016

Title: Transcript of an Audio Recording of an internal IMF meeting

Date: March, 19th 2016

Link: https://wikileaks.org/imf-internal-20160319

Pages: 7

The IMF would like to put debt relief for Greece on the Troika-agenda.

However, IMF officials are worried that the EU is going to be paralyzed in the first half of 2016 because of the looming Brexit so that no decision is going to be made as to Greece. IMF Europe director Thomsen wants to pressure Merkel and reiterate to her that IMF leaving the Troika is going to look bad and is going to lead to discomforting questions in the Bundestag. Thomsen connects the debt relief question loosely to the refugee question.

He talks about the refugees and then says that the IMF will at the same time („we at the time say“) come in with their demands and approach Merkel with the debt relief. Background: Merkel is generally considered a proponent of the IMF participation in the Troika. She managed to get the IMF in despite bitter opposition by some European leaders like Sarkozy. Merkel is considered somewhat undecided on debt relief for Greece (though apparently leaning towards „no“ since she, like many of her European counterparts, fears creating a precedent in Europe.)

IMF Anticipates Greek Disaster

 

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