IMF:Greece should cut spending to get next loan tranche

Greece should further cut spending to meet its 2011 budget program, International Monetary Fund Senior Resident Representative in Athens Bob Traa said on Monday. "Additional steps will be necessary to reduce the budget deficit," Traa told an investment conference. In the first eight months of the year, Greece's budget deficit has overshot its 2011 target of 7.5 percent of gross domestic product and the European Union and the IMF have warned they may not disburse the next 8 billion euro tranche of a 110 billion euro bailout if Athens does not stabilize its budget. Last week the government promised to increase property taxes to raise some 2 billion euros and meet the 2011 budget deficit target, but the move did not satisfy its creditors, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF. This weekend Prime Minister George Papandreou returned from a foreign trip and held a government meeting on new austerity measures, which are expected to be announced later on Monday after a conference call between Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizalos and the country's creditors.