US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin gave no indication that the Donald Trump administration has any intention of standing in the way of an agreement between Greece and its lenders. In comments to Financial Times on Tuesday, Mnuchin said he hopes the Greek situation would be resolved in the near future.
There has been intense speculation over the last few weeks that the new American president would prefer the US not to be involved in the Greek program via its representation at the IMF. Mnuchin’s comments, however, suggest this is not the case.
“We think this is primarily a European issue, although it is something we are monitoring because it is important to the world economy and world financial markets,” he said. However he stressed that lending to rich countries should not be the Fund’s main task.
Mnuchin added that he hopes the Greek situation would be resolved in the “near future.”
“While he stressed that the IMF’s primary role was not to lend to rich countries, the Treasury secretary’s words did not suggest he was planning to impose obstacles on possible IMF participation in Greece’s €86bn bailout,” Financial Times writes.
The US was continuing to encourage the IMF to discuss its participation, Mnuchin said.
The statements of US Treasury Secretary comes just two days before the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Alternate Finance Minister George Chouliarakis on Thursday will depart for Washington where the 2017 spring meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund will take place.