Moreover, the IMF is seen exerting pressure on all sides, especially Berlin, to impose tough policies on Greece so it gets its money back. From the Greek side’s point of view, the IMF’s stance also stresses the internal differences between the three institutions. Still, the three institutions ironed out their differences in their joint proposal discussed by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Commission President Jean-Paul Juncker.

In the same non-paper, the Greek government tried to counter the arguments made by IMF representative Gerry Rice earlier, highlighting a few points with regard to the pension system, a major thorny issue. It said that the average monthly pension in Greece is 664.69 euros for the main ones and 168.40 euros for the supplementary pensions. According to the authors of the non-paper, 44.8 percent of pensioners, that is, 1,189,396 out of a total of 2,654,784, receive a monthly pension that is lower than the poverty line of 665 euros. It also pointed out the average monthly pensions in Greece and Germany are about the same.

The non-paper also tried to play down the differences between Greece and Germany as far as the average age of retirement is concerned, arguing they are small in a bid to show the IMF was tough on the country. It said the retirement age is the same for men at 63 years old in both countries, but admitted that while German women retire at 62 years old on average, Greek women receive a pension at 59.

It is easy to see why the government is making this comparison. It wants to show that the IMF’s demands for a drastic reform of the pensions system are excessive. However, the German economy has little or none in common with the Greek economy which is burdened by a huge public debt, exceeding 170 percent of GDP, has a small export base and is not internationally competitive.