By Brian Blackstone And Ian Talley
WASHINGTON--European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on
Saturday rejected speculation that Greece may be forced to abandon
the euro, reiterating that Europe's single currency is
irrevocable.
At a news conference during meetings here of the world's top
finance officials Mr. Draghi said he stood by a comment he made in
August 2012 that the euro "cannot be reversed."
The risk of a Greek exit appears to be rising, as a stalemate
between Greece and its creditors over emergency financing drags on,
with some big bills falling due for cash-strapped Athens in coming
weeks.
Despite the urgent circumstances, the International Monetary
Fund's Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Saturday said she had
learned little new in talks with Greek Finance Minister Yanis
Varoufakis this week and instead urged him promptly to submit a
detailed proposal for a fresh bailout.
"What we very much hope...is not only speeding, but deepening
the work," she said. "It's not a question of racing to the end,
it's a question of doing all the work that needs to be done."
After a series of meetings in recent days between Mr.
Varoufakis, the IMF and his counterparts from the U.S. and Europe,
senior officials sounded increasingly frustrated that Athens hasn't
put forward a detailed plan to overhaul its government finances and
restore Greek economic growth in a way that would encourage bailout
lenders to unlock financing the debt-ridden country needs to avoid
default.
The recently installed left-wing government continues to resist
overhauls in a number of areas, including further changes to
Greece's pension system and labor market to which its predecessors
had agreed in 2012.
"The job of the finance minister...is to go deep in the
analysis, pull out the numbers, assessing the efforts undertaken,
making a few hypotheticals about what it will deliver in terms of
growth, in terms of fiscal revenues, or spending, and then move
on," Ms. Lagarde said.
Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble damped
hopes for a breakthrough in the Greek situation at a closely
watched meeting of eurozone finance chiefs in Riga, Latvia, next
week. "It doesn't look like there will be a solution in Riga," the
German minister said. "It is clear of course that things have got
worse and it's difficult for Greece."
Mr. Schäuble said the onus remains on Greece to commit to
overhauls in return for sustained aid, based on the Feb. 20
agreement to extend Greece's bailout by four months. "The debate
isn't getting better by repetition," he said. "The time lapse means
Greece can't access the outstanding funds."
A senior IMF official on Friday said negotiations over fresh
emergency financing for Greece are likely to take several more
weeks, even though the cash-needy government in Athens requires a
deal to help it meet a big increase in debt payments due in
June.
The ECB's Mr. Draghi said in 2012 "there is no going back to the
lira or the drachma or to any other currency. It is pointless to
bet against the euro. It is pointless to go short on the euro."
On Saturday, he said he would "say exactly the same words
today."
A Greek default on its debts would in turn threaten the
country's banks and make it harder for the ECB to approve emergency
lending via the Greek central bank.
Mr. Draghi declined to say how the ECB would react to any Greek
default, saying: "I don't want even to contemplate" such a
scenario. "We all want Greece to succeed," Mr. Draghi said, adding,
"the answer is in the hands of the Greek government."
But not all finance officials sounded so confident. Italian
Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said earlier in the week that
Greece's cash crisis could push the country into an unintentional
exit from the eurozone.
Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF's European Department and chief
architect of Greece's bailout programs, said the risk of a Greek
exit shouldn't be underestimated.
And U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on Friday said it was
wrong to think that European and global markets are insulated from
a wider Greek crisis. "I do not think that anyone can predict how
markets will respond to dramatic changes in circumstances," he
said.
Aside from the Greek situation, Mr. Draghi said the eurozone
economy is on more solid footing than it has been in many years, as
the region feels the twin effects of lower oil prices and the ECB's
stimulus that includes record-low interest rates and a recently
launched bond-purchase program. "The basis for this recovery is
broad and stronger than in the past," Mr. Draghi said.
The ECB and IMF have both raised their forecasts for economic
growth in the eurozone, which is the world's second-largest economy
after the U.S.
Still, despite more favorable trends from Europe, the global
economy isn't yet in a phase of robust expansion, he signaled. "I
think it's premature to talk about vibrant growth," Mr. Draghi
said.
Harriet Torry contributed to this article
Write to Brian Blackstone at brian.blackstone@wsj.com