Bulgarian economist Iva Petrova will head the IMF technical team to Athens and will participate in the negotiations with the Greek government on behalf of the IMF. This was confirmed by both IMF spokesman Gerry Rice and Elena Panaritis, who is adviser to Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, private bTV station reports. Petrova graduated at the Sofia High School of Mathematics and the University of National and World Economy. She started working at the Bulgarian National Bank in 1997 and later studied macroeconomics at the Michigan State University, where she was awarded a doctorate. Following her graduation, Petrova started working as an economist at the IMF in Washington and since 2012 she has been a senior economist and has participated in the team working on the Greek loan. Meanwhile, Greece repaid on Friday the second part worth EUR 348 M of its loan to the IMF, which is due until the end of March.Last week, Greece repaid the first installment, which amounted to EUR 310 M, while the next two installments are due on March 16 and 20. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed on the creation of a Greek task force to work with EU experts on structural improvements. During their meeting in Brussels on Friday, Juncker expressed his dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in the negotiations on Greece's bailout. However the Commission President excluded a failure in the talks, which could possibly result in Greece leaving the Eurozone. He highlighted that the Commission can play a limited role in the next few weeks, when Athens has to agree with its creditors on the reforms it will implement in exchange for further bailout. Juncker said that all the decisions will have to be taken by the Eurogroup, daily Kathimerini quotes him as saying.
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