Papandreou: IMF concerns over Greek state finances as far back as 2005

Former Greek prime minister George Papandreou, in televised statements on Tuesday evening, said the IMF was advising Greece and the EU on the “Greek issue” as far back as 2005, while saying that the Fund had warned the then Greek government that fiscal changes were imperative so that the economy wouldn’t derail.

Papandreou, a socialist political fixture in the country for decades whose father and grandfather were also Greek prime ministers, served as premier of a PASOK government from October 2009 until November 2011 when he resigned.

Papandreou told a current affairs program on the Athens television station Skai that the IMF had arrived in Greece in 2005, during the then Karamanlis administration.

“I learned this later … during an event at a US university, where the coordinator was a Mr. Banerji (sic), who was then responsible for Greece at the IMF,” he said.

Papandreou claimed that this IMF official told him he visited Greece in 2005 and told him that the state finances would spiral out of control.