IMF agrees to send mission to Greece on bailout review

International Monetary Fund agreed to send back a mission to Greece to complete a review of Greece's economic reforms, an IMF spokesperson said on Monday.

The announcement came after the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, where Greece's international creditors agreed on the bailout review.

"We welcome the Greek authorities progress to meet the requirements of the institutions in key areas," said the spokesperson.

The review -- carried out by the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the IMF -- has been on hold since last December when IMF's requirement of a substantial debt relief to Greece was refused by the European creditors.

"More progress will be needed to bridge differences on other important issues, and it is too early to speculate about the prospect for reaching staff level agreement during this mission," said the IMF.

A staff-level agreement on policy reform is a necessary condition for the successful conclusion of reviews and therefore for Greece to receive financial support consisting of 86 billion euros (91 billion U.S. dollars) in bailout funds.

In its latest annual assessment of the Greek economy, the IMF said that Greece should deepen and accelerate reforms, which, together with further debt relief, are needed to allow the economy to return to a sustainable growth path. Endit