IMF slashes GDP forecast to 2.2 percent

The International Monetary Fund has lowered its projections on Greek growth from last fall and warned against "unreasonable forecasts" and "unjustifiable frameworks" by the country's European creditors.

In its World Economic Outlook, published on Tuesday, the Fund argued that growth in Greece this year will come to 2.2 percent against a forecast of 2.8 percent last October, but this will not put the sustainability of the country's debt at risk. It actually estimated a major gross domestic product increase of 4.2 percent for the last quarter of 2017.

Notably, the budget estimate for this year's growth is 2.7 percent, and after the downward revision of the 2016 GDP data and delays to the second bailout reform there have been much greater adjustments to Greek growth forecasts for this year by banks and rating agencies.

For 2018, the IMF estimated that growth will...