The International Monetary Fund ( IMF) will send a mission back to Athens later this month, but it is premature to say what different measures might be open for discussion, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday.
At a regular news conference, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters in Washington that the IMF fact-finding mission has concluded work in Athens. Noting that it is too early to get into details, Rice said there were "policy implementation delays in a number of areas and it is clear the economy is going through another difficult period."
Rice said the IMF mission would return to Athens on July 24 to commence discussions on how to bring the Greek program "fully back on track," and the basis for discussions would continue to be the objectives of the program that has been agreed with the Greek government.
His words came a day after the Greek coalition government expressed expectation for an extension for implementing austerity measures, which were conditions of getting aid from the IMF-EU 130 billion euros (158 billion dollars) international bailout program.
"If there are ideas to help better achieve the key program objectives, we are open to discuss them, as is the case in any of the programs that we support," Rice added.