Officials from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission said the country’s reforms were broadly on track despite delays in some sectors, and they would recommend that Greece receives the next installment of its bailout loans.

The €15 billion ($20 billion) are part of a €110 billion package of loans from the IMF and other EU countries that use the euro that saved Greece from bankruptcy last May.

In return, Greece has been pushing through a series of austerity measures and reforms, which IMF mission chief Poul Thomsen said were generally being implemented as planned despite delays and shortfalls in certain areas.

“Our overall assessment is that the program remains broadly on track,” Thomsen said. “But it is at a critical juncture which needs a speed up of structural reforms to keep it on track.” The initial part of the program had “successfully pulled the economy back from the abyss,” he added.

Servaas Deroose of the European Commission said a “decisive breakthrough in the following weeks and months will be crucial.”

The current year will be a crucial one “for Greece to restore credibility of its economic policies,” Deroose said. “That is the prerequisite for Greece to regain market access in the course of next year.”

Greece, which saw its budget deficit spiral to 15.4 percent in 2009, has been essentially blocked out of borrowing on the international market since last year by prohibitively high interest rates demanded for its long-term bonds. The high rates reflect fears that the country is at high risk of defaulting on its debts.

At the end of their latest inspection, the debt inspectors called on the government to boost the size of their privatization drive to €50 billion through 2015.

“To help reduce public debt and to support higher investment and growth, it is essential to scale up privatization in the economy,” said Deroose. He said a comprehensive plan through 2015 would be finalized that would “target total proceeds of privatization in the order of €50 billion for 2011-15, of which at least €15 billion in 2011-2012.”

The initial privatization program called on the government to raise €3 billion through asset sales from 2010-2012, but that figure was increased to €7 billion during talks with the government in November, Deroose said. “However the government has studied the issue a lot and it is well known that there is quite a huge potential for privatization,” he said, adding that the three main sources of privatization would be listed and unlisted companies, government assets in those companies, and commercial real estate.

The Socialist government’s austerity plan has included increasing taxes, raising retirement ages and cutting salaries and pensions. It has also pledged to restructure loss-making state transport companies, reform the public health sector and eliminate tightly controlled licensing practices and fixed profit margins for dozens of professionals, from pharmacists to lawyers and notaries.

The country has pledged to reduce its budget deficit to below the EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2014.

A backlash from unions has led to a series of strikes and frequent demonstrations that disrupt the center of the capital on a near daily basis.

Transport workers in Athens walked off the job for several hours Friday to protest against planned public sector reforms, with hundreds riding on scooters and motorbikes toward the Transport Ministry northeast of the city center in a motorized demonstration. The capital’s metro system, trams, trolleys and buses all stopped operating at various points in the day.

Many state hospital and health care fund doctors have been on strike for 10 days, and have often been joined by pharmacists in Athens and the neighboring port city of Piraeus.