Following the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent report on the Greek bailout, steps toward compromise between the IMF and European creditors make it likely that Greece will face pressure to meet its commitments.
 
The Greek government had previously agreed to fiscal targets of a 3.5 percent budget surplus target as a percentage of GDP after 2018. The IMF considers this target, a demand from European creditors, to be unrealistic and proposed in its recent report that a target of 1.5 percent of GDP would be more likely to be successful. Any compromise to bring the IMF back into the fold as a creditor in the bailout would likely require the IMF to accept the higher target and require the Greek government to agree to precautionary measures to be implemented in 2018.
 
These measures will include efforts to boost Greek tax revenue through an increased tax base, accomplished by lowering the current tax-free income threshold. The government would also likely be required to reduce social security expenditures, where Greece has the highest spending percentage when weighed against GDP for any European Union country. Finally, the country would likely have to liberalize the labor market, for instance, allowing companies to approve mass layoff without government approval.