IMF admits "notable failures" in Greece bailout

WASHINGTON The International Monetary Fund is acknowledging it made "notable failures" in Greece's massive bailout and says the country suffered a much deeper recession than what was foreseen.

The IMF made the unusually frank admission in a report Wednesday that described the first two years of the program as a "holding operation" as eurozone members grappled with the enormity of the unfolding economic crisis.

• Austerity measures force EU into record recession
• IMF insists on austerity despite economic damage
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It argued that rescue lenders had allowed Greek debt to remain too high until private bonds were eventually restructured.

Greece lost market access in 2010 and has received a staggering 200 billion euros ($260 billion) is rescue loans from euro countries and the IMF in two successive bailout programs.

But it remains mired in a sixth year of recession, with unemployment at 27 percent.