Greece ‘just two weeks’ from cash crisis, says finance minister

Greece has won limited support from the euro zone for the progress it has made in difficult bailout talks, but warned that it faces a cash crunch within a fortnight without a deal. Greece’s new government scraped together enough cash to order the repayment to the International Monetary Fund of 750m euros (£544m) and avoid a default which could send it crashing out of the euro.

The liquidity issue is a terribly urgent issue. It’s common knowledge, let’s not beat around the bush. From the perspective [of timing], we are talking about the next couple of weeks.

Greece’s finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis

Whether Greece will default on its debts and leave the euro is one of the biggest uncertainties surrounding the global economy. But euro zone finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday kept their tough line, saying Greece could not hope for any of the final 7.2bn-euro tranche of its 240bn-euro EU-IMF bailout until they make key reforms. In the event of a debt default, Greece could have to put controls on the flow of money through its banks and eventually even drop out of the euro altogether.

Politics Greece