IMF insists on cuts, tax-free threshold

The International Monetary Fund remains unchanged in its views regarding the need for Greece to slash pensions, abolish pensioner handouts and reduce the tax-free threshold, and insists that the national debt is unsustainable in the long term, according to the Fund's latest report on Greece.

The Article IV report will be discussed by the IMF executive board on November 13, in the wake of the Fund's mission to Athens in September. However, its completed text has been on the desks of the board members, as well as those of the Greek government, since last week.
On the debt's sustainability, the Fund's analysis does not foresee any problem in covering funding needs up to 2032; however, after that the coverage of needs will depend on interest rates and the growth of the economy, which the IMF itself projects at just 0.9 percent.

As things stand (with low interest...