ATHENS: The Greece government admitted it had a cash shortfall and its transfer of cash reserves from local government and other public entities was “domestic borrowing” to cover immediate financing needs.
Meanwhile, a deal between Greece and international lenders on the list of Greek reforms in exchange for further vital aid remained elusive, despite two months of deliberations.
Greek Deputy Minister Dimitris Mardas said during an interview with a local television channel that the Greek state was short of about €400 million (about 430 million U.S. dollars) urgently needed to pay salaries and pensions on April 24.
The Greek official also noted that Greece has reached a “breaking point” with regards to its cash reserves from February this year. Mardas clarified shortly afterwards, when speaking to another television station, that the required funds would be available on time by drawing on cash reserves of public entities through a central Bank of Greece account.
As such, the state’s domestic obligations and obligations to lenders (Greece repays IMF loan installments on a monthly basis) are fully guaranteed not only for April, but also for May, finance ministry officials stressed.
