THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund has not received any request for help from the Government so far, the fund’s managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at the weekend.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was speaking in Yokohama, Japan, on the sidelines of the APEC Pacific Rim leaders’ summit at the weekend.
“I have not been in contact with Ireland, he told reporters, adding, “I think they can manage well”.
Mr Strauss-Kahn said: “If at one point in time . . . the Irish want some support from the IMF, of course we will be ready” but added that “until that it’s business as usual”.
Mr Strauss-Kahn said he was “confident” that Ireland would solve its problems and described the current predicament, which is a banking issue, as “totally different” to that of Greece.
The Irish situation is mostly linked to the problem of the banks, especially one big bank, not only one, but mostly one big bank. It’s not the same thing as the Greece problem, which was at the same time a fiscal problem but also a competitiveness problem,” he said.
“And one of the difficulties for the Greek government . . . is that they also have to solve this competitiveness problem. Without solving this problem, they won’t find a way out.” – (AP, Reuters)