Transcript of a Press Briefing by Gerry Rice, Director, External Relations Department, International Monetary Fund

17:13 5/11/2012 - Πηγή: Olympia

MR. RICE: Hello, and good morning everyone. Welcome to this press briefing on behalf of the IMF. It’s very good to see everyone in the room and colleagues online. It’s especially good to see everyone emerged safely from the effects of Hurricane Sandy which took such a toll on lives and property

for so many people on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, and of course our sympathies are with those affected today.I’m Gerry Rice, External Relations Department of the IMF, and as usual, this briefing will be embargoed until 10:30 a.m.Allow me to make a few brief announcements and then to turn to your questions. Firstly, this coming weekend the Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton will be in Mexico City for the G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors. That’s November 4 and 5.I can also tell you that the Managing Director will be visiting three countries in Southeast Asia later this month. Between November 14 and 20 she will be in Malaysia, the Philippines and Cambodia. In Phnom Penh she will attend the ASEAN Global Dialogue as well as the East Asia Summit.David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director, will be in London later this month, including at the London School of Economics, where he will be making a speech focused on transformation in the Middle East.There are a couple of other things.Next week the annual Jacques Polak Research Conference will take place. That’s going to be November 8 and 9 here at the Fund. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Labor Markets through the Lens of the Great Recession’.Finally, the Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia will be launched in Dubai on November 11. With that let me turn to your questions.SPEAKER: Good morning, Gerry. What is going on with the negotiations with the Greek government, and when do you expect negotiations or the final agreement? In your opinion, why do we have so much delay especially after the prime minister announced that the talks are over?MR. RICE: I’m sure you say the statement from the Euro Group yesterday and I’m sure everyone has seen that. We welcome that most policy issues between Greece and the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF are being settled and staff level agreement on economic policies could come soon. Before the first review under the Expanded Fund Facility arrangement with Greece can be completed, understandings must also be reached between Greece and its creditors on financing terms consistent with debt sustainability. I think to answer your question there are if you will four big components that have been discussed, the fiscal reforms, the structural reforms where good progress appears to be made and still under discussion are the financing issues and financing consistent with debt sustainability which is the fourth issue.SPEAKER: Can you explain to us more on the financing? You are looking for somebody to pay the gap? That’s corre