ATHENS: Greece is "making progress" in overcoming "deep-seated problems", the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, but finding a way to get the economy growing again after years of recession remains vital, it added.
"Progress on fiscal adjustment has been exceptional by any international comparison," the IMF said in a regular report capping the visit of an audit team.
"Greece has also made a significant dent in its competitiveness gap, " the report said.
But the IMF emphasised that "restoring growth remains the overarching precondition for whether Greece succeeds" in its bailout programme with the IMF and European Union, and much work remains to be done especially in terms of structural reforms.
"Insufficient structural reforms" have meant that deficit cutting has been achieved primarily through cutting jobs and salaries bringing "unequal distribution of the burden of adjustment," the IMF said.
The IMF also said that "very little" had been done to tackle Greece's "notorious tax evasion," with the rich and self-employed "simply not paying their fair share" as austerity unfairly hits mostly public sector workers earning a salary or a pension.
Greece suffers from too many closed professions, the Fund added, which also unfairly hurts regular salary earners not protected by special work code regimes that limit competition.
Greece was obliged to adopt a strict austerity programme, including drastic salary and pension cuts, as part of its two EU-IMF bailout deals.
Since 2010, the European Union and International Monetary Fund have committed a total of 240 billion euros ($317 billion) in rescue loans to Greece.
Last month, the Greek parliament voted to adopt a law that will allow the dismissal of 15,000 civil servants as part of austerity measures imposed by the indebted country's international creditors.
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