The arrangement aimed to improve competitiveness and investment (making Greece an export-led growth model) and suppress domestic demand with wage and benefit cuts.
[16] On 10 September, the IMF Executive Board completed its first review of Greece's performance under the SBA and authorized the disbursement of 2.16 billion SDR.
[17][18] The troika emphasized the need for more reforms, including cuts in health spending and wages, privatization and the abolition of trade barriers, on 23 November.
According to Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair Murilo Portugal, "An arrangement for Greece under the Extended Fund Facility (...) will be brought forward for consideration by the IMF's Executive Board".
The program aimed to return to growth with improved competitiveness, a reduced minimum wage and public spending, and fighting tax evasion.
[32] After a political crisis due to the Greek election, the IMF completed its First and Second Reviews Under Extended Fund Facility Arrangement and approved an €3.24 billion disbursement on 16 January 2013 with the new government.
Examples were a 15-percent drop in unit labor cost, an over-20-percent reduction in the minimum wage, and reforms which would reduce pension spending to about 14 percent of GDP.
[35][36][37] On 14 February 2015, after the Greek elections, IMF chair and managing director Christine Lagarde explained in a letter to the president of the Eurogroup problems with the new government's intentions.
[41] The IMF published a 14 July study of Greece's public debt, calling it highly unsustainable and saying that it should peak at 200 percent of GDP in the next few years.
The Greek economic program was a macroeconomic stabilization with reforms including higher taxes on the middle class and pension cuts amounting to 3.5 percent of GDP (or surplus) until 2022.
The Greek government promised to relax capital controls and preserve labor-market reforms, liberalizing Sunday trade and facilitating investment.
[52] According to the report, the SBA improved long-term sustainability due to cuts in wages and pensions and a VAT increase; the Greek government significantly reduced its fiscal deficit and unit labor cost.
[53] Greece is subject to post-program monitoring (PPM), focusing on its ability to repay the IMF, as a country which owes the fund more than 1.5 billion SDR or 200 percent of its quota.
[54] The first PPM was completed on 12 March 2019; the IMF concluded that "recovery in Greece is accelerating and broadening", with projected growth of 2.4 percent of GDP due to the export market, private consumption and investment.
On 10 January 2014, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) published a letter saying that privatization "complicated the access to essential public services such as water and sanitation and energy" and poor Greek citizens were denied healthcare because of government cuts.
[55] That year, the Greek Council of State declared austerity measures such as the 2012 wage cuts for academic personnel[56] and the planned privatization of the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company unconstitutional.
[citation needed] A 2015 report by the European Parliament directorate-general for internal policies said that the austerity measures infringed the rights to a pension, to work, to healthcare and to justice.
[57] In October 2017, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe reported that the austerity measures infringed the rights to healthcare, to an adequate standard of living, to work and to social security, with a "disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable".