Greece blasts IMF

ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was employing ‘stalling tactics’ and ‘arbitrary’ estimates to hold up a reforms review crucial to the country’s economic recovery. The leftist PM said the Washington-based global lender was bent on counter-productive cuts that failed to take into account the improved performance of Greece’s economy. “The review will be completed soon in spite of the IMF’s stalling tactics,” Tsipras told his party’s central committee. “For the first time, there is substantial convergence... between the Greek side and  European institutions,” he said. Greece and the EU now see eye to eye on the pace of reforms, the state of the 2016 budget and fiscal requirements to 2018, he said. In contrast, the IMF had ‘unrealistic expectations’, ‘unrevised and erroneous calculations’, Tsipras said.