IMF Economic Counselor and Director of Research Maurice Obstfeld has urged the need for relaxing of the strict fiscal measures on Greece in response to the refugee crisis. Speaking to German newspaper Handelsblatt, he stressed that more flexibility is necessary in the short-term regarding fiscal goals, though structural reforms are unavoidable.
He also stressed that more debt relief for Greece is needed. He said the EU should promote greater cooperation on the crisis and that member states should share the financial burden of dealing with it, while trying to avoid the erection of walls and fences. Such barriers worry the American economist, as it flies in the face of the currency union. Obstfeld was also critical of the fact that the ECB had taken on the task of boosting the economy on its own without employing fiscal policies.
