IMF’s Traa says need for reforms should have been explained

As the office of the International Monetary Fund in Greece prepares to close, its first chief, Bob Traa, shares his thoughts with Kathimerini about the Fund's contribution to the Greek bailout and reform process, saying that more and bolder interventions were required, and that the necessary sacrifices should have been better communicated to the people.

The Dutch official explains that the choice of the IMF to help streamline the Greek economy in 2010 was ideal: "The IMF has ample experience with program countries and with difficult adjustment efforts. This experience proved very helpful at the beginning in 2009-2010, because the surveillance over Greece in the 2000s was too loose," Traa argues.

"The great risks presented to sustainability in Greece by the growing imbalances in the economy were not recognized - this only came when it was already too late; after the...