The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected the Greek government to carry out deep structural reforms and also persevere with a programme of austerity measures, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in an interview published by the German paper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" on Tuesday.

In an interview that pivoted on whether Spain might find itself at the centre of a new European crisis, Lagarde said the IMF might be unpopular but defended its policies and said a "significant arsenal" of measures had been taken to avert such contagion, including insistence on tough austerity measures in Greece, Italy and Spain to strengthen the Eurozone 'firewall'.