ATHENS: Greece made a €200-million interest payment to the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, the Greek finance ministry said, and the first of two reimbursements Athens must honour by mid-May.
The smaller of the two scheduled payments totalling nearly one billion euros came despite the failure thus far by cash-strapped Greece and its European Union-IMF creditors to reach a deal to unblock €7.2 billion in bailout funds to Athens.
But fears that Greece might not scrape up enough cash to repay Wednesday’s interest payment – or the additional €750 million due by May 12 – were shrugged off by Greek officials. “The instalment will be paid,” assured Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas on TV station Mega an hour before Athens said it handed over the funds.
Sources in Athens have told AFP that the 750 million euros due next Tuesday will also be paid, and predict Greece will successfully raise 2.8 billion in two bond issues May 8 and 15. Greece is planning a six-month Treasury bond issue for a maximum of €1.4 billion next Wednesday, following the stabilisation of rates that had soared in reaction to January’s election of the militantly anti-austerity Syriza government.
