Lagarde says Greek rescue plan should be “rooted in reality”

PanARMENIAN.Net - An agreement among Greece's creditors on how to reduce its large debt pile should be "rooted in reality and not in wishful thinking," the head of the International Monetary Fund said as she heads into a tense meeting with European leaders, according to Reuters.

Christine Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, canceled the last leg of her visit to Asia, skipping a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia, to return to Brussels for a meeting on Tuesday, Nov 20, of the Eurogroup on Greece.

As she left the Philippines, Lagarde said she would push for a permanent solution to Greece's debts to avoid prolonged uncertainty and further damage to the Greek economy.

"I am always trying to be constructive but I am driven by two objectives," she said in an interview, "to build and approve a program for Greece that is solid, that is convincing today, that will be sustainable tomorrow, that is rooted in reality and not in wishful thinking.

"The second objective is to maintain the integrity, credibility and quality of advice that we are giving, not for the Fund itself, which obviously is a concern of mine, but to lend that to the Europeans because that is what they are interested in," she said late on Saturday.

Lagarde has previously said the IMF does not walk away from countries, but without a European deal on Greece's debt and financing she cannot take the matter to the IMF board of member countries for approval.

"(Markets) are not going to be convinced today that the solution holds in the medium term," she said of Greece's debt problems. "And that is what we need to focus on."

"The sense I have ... is that the Europeans have taken the view that the zone has to stay a zone of 17 member states," Lagarde said of Europe's political commitment to Athens.