News Digest

Greece moves to quell loan default fears and pledges to meet ‘all obligations’

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has said that Greece “intends to meet all obligations to all its creditors, ad infinitum,” seeking to quell default fears ahead of a big loan payment Athens owes the IMF later this week. Following a meeting with the head of the International Monetary Fund, Varoufakis (pictured right) told reporters the government plans to “reform Greece deeply” and would seek to improve the “efficacy of negotiations” with its creditors.

I welcomed confirmation by the minister that payment owing to the Fund would be forthcoming on April 9th.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde in a statement after meeting with Varoufakis

Greece has not received bailout funds since August last year and has resorted to measures such as borrowing from state entities to tide it over. It offered a new package of economic reforms last week in the hope of unlocking 7 billion euros ($7.71bn) of emergency funding, but has yet to win agreement on the proposals with its EU and IMF lenders. Most urgently, Athens is on the hook for a roughly 450 million euro ($495m) loan repayment to the IMF due this Thursday. The interior minister suggested last week the government would prioritize wages and pensions over the IMF payment, although the government later denied that was its stance.