#Greece demands answers from IMF after 'debt transcript leaked'

After a conversation between IMF officials about the Greek bailout was leaked, Greece is demands an explanation.

Wikileaks published a transcript showing the officials discussing ways of putting pressure on Greece, Germany and the EU to get them to wrap up talks.

The conversation took place on 19 March and allegedly involves Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF's Europe department, and Delia Velculescu, leader of the IMF team in Greece. Both are the senior officials in charge of Greece's debt crisis.

 

Last year, the EU and IMF agreed upon a multi-billion dollar bailout with Greece that was necessary for the country to avoid bankruptcy and allowed them to stay in the eurozone.

 

In the transcript, Thomsen is quoted as complaining about the pace of talks on reforms Greece has agreed to carry out in exchange for the bailout.

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"What is going to bring it all to a decision point?" he asks. "In the past there has been only one time when the decision has been made and then that was when they were about to run out of money seriously and to default."

Velculescu agreed, "We need an event, but I don't know what that will be".

Thomsen also appears to suggest the IMF could pull out of the bailout to force German Chancellor Angela Merkel to agree to debt relief.

Such a move could be politically difficult for Merkel, the key figure in the crisis.

"Look..., 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?" Mr Thomsen says.

He adds that, if Greece were to default, talks could be further delayed by Britain's referendum on EU membership.

The IMF would not comment on the purported leaks but said its public position on the matter was clear.

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said: "As WikiLeaks revealed today, the IMF is planning to stall until July to bring Greece to its knees [again!] in order to force Angela Merkel's hand.

"It's time to stop Greece's fiscal waterboarding by an incompetent, misanthropic troika."

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