Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) first deputy managing director John Lipsky feels that efforts to get Greece back on track have failed, as he reiterated the need to focus on structural reforms. "It has been frustrating because some of these have been clear from the outset in so many ways. I feel this process could have been handled so much better," he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Lipsky insisted that the underlying issues that needed to be dealt with are the structural reforms, citing their inadequacies as the reason that Greece has lost competitiveness in the Eurozone. "I am always pained by the characterization of the issue as one of growth versus austerity, as if that were the issue of immediate consequence.

"The issue is underlying structural reform. If economies like Greece, Portugal, and ultimately Spain and Italy, cannot recapture lost ground in terms of competitiveness in the Eurozone, it is hard to see how they are going to achieve economic and financial success," he said.

JM

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