Tsipras: ‘EU/IMF Rift On Greek Debt Is Damaging The Country’

THESSALONIKI, Greece (Reuters) – A rift between the International Monetary Fund and the European Union on how to address Greece’s debt crisis is damaging for the country, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Sunday.

“I would say that what is creating conditions of delay in regaining trust of markets and investors … is the constant clash and disagreement between the IMF and European institutions,” Tsipras told a news conference in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

The IMF has yet to decide whether to participate in a third international bailout Greece signed up to in mid-2015, saying it is not convinced its debt is sustainable. The country’s current debt to GDP ratio exceeds 170 percent of national output, the highest in the euro zone.

Tsipras said disagreements between the EU and the IMF was preventing timely participation of the country in the quantitative easing programme of the European Central Bank.

“A country which has made such harsh adjustment cannot wait much more… It is entitled to a fair regulation of the debt issue.”

“The Greek problem is a European problem,” Tsipras said.

(Reporting By George Georgiopoulos, writing by Michele Kambas)