Russia: IMF's programme failed in Greece and Ukraine - IMF Executive Director Paulo Batista

"The record of the IMF as an institution is mixed", said International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Director Paulo Nogueira Batista during an interview at the 19th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Friday. Batista also stated that he believed the fund's programmes in both Greece and Ukraine could be deemed as "failures". Discussing the Greek economic crisis, Batista said that he believed the Greek people had been "somewhat patient because they took quiet a long time, quiet a long time, almost five years, to vote out of power the parties that were handling the crisis in a matter that was perhaps very detrimental to the country." He also noted that Greece had suffered as a result of "misguided decisions" taken by the IMF, European authorities and previous Greek governments. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2015) began on Thursday with as many as 7,500 participants from Russia and 64 other countries taking part in one of the country's largest annual business conferences.