WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was unable to identify the scale of risks in economic crises in Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF said in a report on Thursday.
"The report finds that the IMF’s pre-crisis surveillance identified the right issues but did not foresee the magnitude of the risks that would later become paramount," the report stated.
The evaluation office noted the IMF-supported assistance programs for Greece and Portugal had "overly optimistic growth projections."
"The IMF’s handling of the euro area crisis raised issues of accountability and transparency, which helped create the perception that the IMF treated Europe differently," the report argued.
The Independent Evaluation Office called on the IMF to develop tools to minimize political intervention in the fund's technical analysis, among other measures.
The European multi-debt crisis has been taking place since 2009. Several members of the Euro zone, including Greece, Portugal and Ireland, failed to repay government debt.
