Greece could exit its economic crisis by 2013, an International Monetary Fund economist said Friday.
Poul Thomsen also told the Greek daily "To Vima" that Athens should strengthen its efforts to diminish wide spread tax evasion and boost state revenues.
"There must be decisiveness on improving the tax collection mechanism. It is a matter of political will," Thomsen said. "You can't implement a program of fiscal discipline, throwing all the burden to pensioners and employees."
Thomsen heads a group of European Union- IMF auditors who monitor the Greek economy in the framework of an agreement to financially assist Greece in exchange for austerity measures and reforms.
Thomsen said the opening up of "closed" professions is one of the most important reforms Athens should make because it will have an immediate positive impact on the growth of the national economy.
Concerning the prospect of a wave of dismissals of civil servants to slash state expenditures and a budget deficit of 13.6 percent of GDP to less than three percent in three years, Thomsen said restructuring of the Greek public sector should be done with social responsibility.
From September there will be an IMF office in Athens that will systematically collect, analyze and discuss with local authorities data on the Greek economy, he said.
The delegation of EU-IMF experts under Thomsen just finished a two-week visit to Athens this week. After talks with Greek officials, the foreign experts will officially submit a positive first progress report on the implementation of the Greek Stability and Growth Program to European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF headquarters later this month.
Based on that report EU and IMF officials are expected to approve the release of the second tranche of financial aid to Greece this September in the framework of the three-year support package to tackle the economic crisis./.