Peter Dolman

A spokesman for the International Monetary Fund on Friday expressed the IMF's opposition to the restoration of Greek pension bonuses and its insistence on the need for pensions to be further reduced along with cuts to the tax-free threshold for income. 

The tax measures announced by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday are in the opposite direction to where they should be headed, International Monetary Fund mission chief for Greece Peter Dolman said on Thursday in Athens, as European officials continued to informally express their concerns over the handouts.

Just two days after it was announced, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' economic stimulus package - including tax cuts, a reneging on the lowering of the tax-free threshold as of 2020, and a bonus for pensioners - has triggered  concerns in the IMF about a fiscal derailment.

With polls looming this year, the International Monetary Fund has expressed concern that government policy could be dictated by pre-election considerations which could lead Greece away from the path of fiscal discipline and reform.

The head of the IMF mission in Greece, Peter Dolman, warned that the high primary surpluses Greece must achieve in coming years could compromise the economy's growth.

The International Monetary Fund on Friday expressed uncertainty over the long-term prospects of Greece's debt, along with concern that some of the reforms might be reversed or not implemented, including the reduction of pensions in 2019 and the tax discount in 2020.

Discussions continue on policies that could support the participation of the International Monetary Fund in the Greek program and the arrangement of the national debt, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in Washington on Thursday, but stressed that "time is running very short" for a solution.

Representatives of Greece's international creditors were back in Athens on Monday for the fourth review of the country's third bailout and scheduled to resume talks with government officials focusing on the deregulation of the energy market.

After three years as the head of the International Monetary Fund's mission to Greece, Romanian Delia Velculescu is replaced by US official Peter Dolman.

Dolman is seen by his colleagues as a particularly experienced technocrat who is not among the "particularly hard" IMF officials, but rather moderate.