IMF admits deriving lessons from Greek bailout

The International Monetary Fund ( IMF) said Thursday that lessons from the first bailout program for Greece have been internalised and the current rescue plan is " on track".

The evaluation report is a standard procedure after a member country has had exceptional access to the IMF funds, as was the case in Greece, and the objective of such a report is to "learn", reported Xinhua citing IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice at a regular briefing in Washington, D.C.

The evaluation focused on the initial Greek bailout programme approved in 2010, not the bigger second programme which the IMF and the European partners agreed in 2012, he noted.

In a self-assessment report released Wednesday, the IMF said there were both "notable successes" and "notable failures" in its first bailout of Greece. The Fund underestimated the damage that fiscal austerity would do to the Greek economy and overestimated the country's capacity to implement structural reforms.