ATHENS: The managing director of IMF said that Greece needs to pay out more than €1.5bn of social security payments for April this week. Greece made a €450m loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund last week. There are fears that Athens could run out of cash in coming weeks.
Managing director Christine Lagarde said last week that talks between Greece and its creditors had been “difficult on almost a daily basis”. She added: “What really matters now is for Greece and the three institutions to get on with the work so we can identify together the measures that will take Greece out of the very bad economic situation it could be in if those measures are not taken.”
A meeting of deputy finance ministers called the Euro Working Group last Thursday gave Athens six working days to come up with a convincing economic reform plan before eurozone finance ministers meet on 24 April to decide whether to unlock €7.2bn of bailout funds. Greece has been on the verge of bankruptcy since 2009 and has depended on rescue loans totaling €240bn from the EU and IMF to stay afloat.
