IMF calls for an agreement on Greece’s debt by next week

Angelos Tzortzinis | AFP | Getty Images

Greek students gather during a protest against reforms in the education sector on March 30, 2018 near Prime Minister’s office, in Athens.

So far, all the money that Greece has received under its third bailout program has come from Europe and it’s still waiting for a slice from the Washington, D.C.-based IMF. The IMF has said that it will not disburse any funds until Europe agrees on specific measures that will make Greek debt more sustainable over the long term. Greece has a debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) of 180 percent.

However, the debt issue becomes even more pressing as Athens approaches the end of the financial program, scheduled for August 20.

Between an agreement on debt and the end of the bailout, the IMF has said it would be available to disburse 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion).

Eurogroup President Mario Centeno said in a letter to his fellow finance ministers that “the aim is to reach a staff level agreement ahead of the May Eurogroup.”

However, there are still outstanding issues that the different institutions have to fix to get the deal done by next Thursday.

“There’s been a considerable narrowing of differences in recent months,” Thomsen told CNBC, but “there are still some different assessments of growth over the medium term,” he added.

“Acknowledging that this is an area where there is considerable uncertainty, we are discussing a mechanism for providing more debt relief in case growth is weaker than what our European partners expect,” he said.