(MENAFN- QNA) Greece says it is in the process of securing an early exit from its international bailout scheme, which would make it the third eurozone country after Ireland and Portugal to leave an EU-IMF programme.
"We are close to exiting the memorandum," Greek government spokeswoman Sofia Voultepsi told private ANT 1 television, in comments following talks between Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis and IMF chief Christine Lagarde in Washington on Sunday.
She was referring to the deal that governs 240 billion euros (304 billion dollars) in bailouts the country has received since 2010 from its international lenders, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"This will happen without our public finances being disturbed and without new debt and deficits being formed," she said.
But the president of the Eurogroup panel of eurozone finance ministers said later Monday that it was too early to say what is in
store for Greece.
"Still a lot of work has to be done," Jeroen Dijsselbloem said before chairing a meeting of the ministers in Luxembourg.
"Before the end of the year, we will do new calculations on debt sustainability to see what the financing needs for the Greek
government are - next year and the years after - and then we can see what is necessary," he added.
In exchange for the bailout loans, Greek authorities agreed to repeated tax hikes, as well as salary and pension cuts. Unemployment has risen to more than 26 per cent.
Greece is currently undergoing a fifth - and it hopes final - review of its economic reform progress by international creditors, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras insisting the country is ready to make an early exit from its bailout programme.
"We will not need another bailout or mandatory lending programme," Samaras said last week ahead of a confidence vote in parliament. At the time he said that the goal of the government was to emerge from the memorandum a year and a half earlier than expected.
The focus of the current round of austerity talks with lenders has been on Greece's 2015 budget and the government's efforts to downsize the bloated public sector, as well as efforts to push ahead with a controversial overhaul of the pension system.
Europe's bailout programme for Greece concludes at the end of the year, while the IMF's programme ends in early 2016.
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