IMF to shut down Athens office after decade of crisis

• The International Monetary Fund will soon be shutting down its local bureau in Athens in a move signaling Greece’s readiness to leave behind a decade marked by financial crisis.
• Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the decision on Tuesday after meeting with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the fund’s headquarters in Washington.
• Athens completed its third bailout program in August 2018 after receiving some €290 billion in emergency loans over eight years from the eurozone and the IMF — the biggest bailout for a debtor in recent history.
• Mitsotakis now hopes to persuade Greece’s European lenders to relax budget surplus targets set during the 2015 bailout, on the basis that he promises to deliver higher economic growth from 2021 onward. Mitsotakis said he hopes the fund will support Greece’s request.

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