The International Monetary Fund is continuing its call for debt relief for Greece, ahead of an expected vote early Friday in parliament in Athens, according to dpa. The vote on Greece's third international bailout in five years could relieve the country's economic turmoil but also unleash political ferment. The Greek parliamentary vote is expected ahead of a meeting later Friday in Brussels of eurozone finance ministers to consider the rescue plan for Athens. Parliaments in other eurozone countries have to make their own votes for the aid programme, which Greece urgently needs to meet an August 20 deadline for a 3.2-billion-euro debt repayment to the European Central Bank. A team of staffers from the IMF left Athens Wednesday after two weeks participating in technical talks between the Greek government and the European Commission, European Central Bank and European Stability Mechanism (ESM) on an economic programme that could be financially supported by the ESM. The memorandum of understanding agreed last month between Greece and its creditors was "a very important step forward" to install "far-reaching policies to restore fiscal sustainability, financial sector stability, and sustainable growth," said Delia Velculescu, who led the Washington-based crisis lender's team in Athens. The IMF said it hopes to work out more details of required Greek reforms and "for Greece's European partners to make decisions on debt relief that will allow Greece's debt to become sustainable," Velculescu said. "The IMF will remain closely engaged with the Greek government and the European partners to assist in this process, and will make an assessment of its participation in providing any additional financing to Greece once the steps on the authorities' program and debt relief have been taken, expected at the time of the first review of the ESM program," she said.
