No indication of bailout qualms from US over Greek deal
In comments to the Financial Times on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin gave no indication that the Donald Trump administration has any intention of standing in the way of an agreement between Greece and its lenders, which would lead to the International Monetary Fund committing new funds to the Greek bailout.
There has been intense speculation over the last few weeks that the new American president would prefer the US not to be involved in the Greek program via its representation at the IMF. Mnuchin’s comments, however, suggest this is not the case.
“We think this is primarily a European issue, although it is something we are monitoring because it is important to the world economy and world financial markets,” he said, though he stressed that lending to rich countries should not be the Fund’s main task. Mnuchin added that he hopes the Greek situation would be resolved in the “near future.”
