GREECE – A new report from the International Monetary Fund says Greece needs to do more to deal the costs of population ageing.

The IMF said that “additional steps will be needed at an early stage to address longer-term spending pressures related to population aging”.

Greece recently consolidated is public pensions funds and made steps towards the establishment of private funds – moves which the IMF has welcomed.

The report follows a major study by the European Commission last month, which found that Greece’s balanced budget Greece is under threat due to a large projected increase in pension expenditure.

Greece was not doing enough to address the core issue of pension reform, the Commission said – adding that more reform was needed to avert an “unsustainable” increase in public spending.

The IMF said Greece also has to made extra reforms to meet the employment and labour participation targets set out in the European Union’s Lisbon Agenda – which seeks to make Europe more competitive.

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