IMF chief welcomes loan payment move by Athens
INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund boss Christine Lagarde has welcomed news that Greece plans to make a loan repayment due this week.
Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis met the IMF managing director in Washington for an “informal discussion” on the debt- stricken nation’s reform plans.
“We both agreed that effective co- operation is in everyone’s interest,” Lagarde said afterwards. “We noted that continuing uncertainty is not in Greece’s interest.”
Greece, which is in difficult negotiations with creditors over its bailout programme, must repay a € 450million (£ 331million) IMF loan instalment on Thursday.
Deputy finance minister Dimitris Mardas said Greece has the funds, but it is up to the government to decide whether to pay. Greece and its creditors have been negotiating which economic reforms it should implement to receive more funding. Since 2010, Greece has been dependent on rescue loans worth € 240billion (£ 176billion) from other eurozone countries and the IMF.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was elected in January on promises to abolish the deeplyresented bailout conditions, which included deep spending cuts and tax hikes.
However, his new Syriza government has since softened many pre- election promises. Despite the pledge to make the IMF loan repayment, DailyFX currency analyst Christopher Vecchio said there remained concerns about Greece’s ability to “dodge yet another bullet”.