IMF admits to misjudging economic performance

As the government hailed official figures putting last year's budget surplus eight times the size of the target set by Greece's international creditors, a key International Monetary Fund official on Friday conceded that the organization underestimated the resilience of the Greek economy once again.

"The number that came out this morning is well above what we have been projecting, what anybody has been projecting," the head of the IMF's European department, Poul Thomsen, said, referring to a primary budget surplus for 2016 worth 3.9 percent of gross domestic product, as announced by Greece's statistics service ELSTAT.

Thomsen, who was the Fund's envoy to Greece at the height of the crisis, said the IMF would send experts to Athens next week to help finalize a package of measures agreed between eurozone finance ministers.

Addressing a press conference in Washington...