LONDON
Greece has made a €450 million ($477.7 million) payment to the International Monetary Fund on time in April, but the country may have to put off payments of pensions and wages this month, an expert warns.
The Head of Economic Research at think tank Open Europe, Raoul Ruparel, told The Anadolu Agency that Greece, which was about to run out of money, “with the contributions that may have come from the public and private entities”.
The Greek government has not made it clear where from did it take the money to pay the tranche.
It is known that the Greek government has been obliged to sequester the reserves of public agencies, to seize EU subsidies destined for farmers, and to postpone all payments for state supplies in the scramble to continue servicing its debt and paying salaries and pensions. Pension funds have been raided to raise money as well.
The Greek government must also find €1.7 billion ($1.82 billion) for public sector wages and pensions by the end of the month, but it is not clear it will be able to do so.
Ruparel said that Greece is trying to achieve an agreement with the Eurogroup of 19 Member States on April 24th, and “to pay bills just before the end of the month.”
The European Central Bank on Thursday raised its ceiling on emergency funding for Greek banks by €1.2 billion ($1.27 billion). This is the largest reported single increase in emergency funding since the central bank ceased its ordinary lending operations to the country in February.
Emergency funding, which is reviewed on a weekly basis by the ECB, has been provided in small portions to Greek banks, but now it stands at more than €73 billion ($77.5 billion).
Danger of unrest
Ruparel said that the Greek government is giving priority to the payments for the IMF and the Eurozone, but it had previously promised that it will give priority to the wage payments and pensions.
Only time will show whether the government will miss paying salaries and pensions, but if that happens, “definitively I think that will cause some political unrest,” he said.
Ruparel said that support for the government remains high in Greece, but that could change if salaries and pensions aren't paid.
Greek minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis has said that the Greek government wants to reach at least a temporary agreement with creditors in the meeting of the Eurozone’s finance ministers on April 24th.
The Greek government has sent to its creditors an expanded list of economic reforms which the Eurogroup is reviewing.
Speaking at the IMF’s meeting in Washington on Thursday, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde showed impatience about progress.
"What is now badly needed is not to talk, but to actually get on with the work," said Lagarde said.
"The Greek authorities together with representatives of the three institutions have to really sit down and focus on the objective of what is better for Greece - which is restoring the economy, stabilising it and by so doing re-establishing its sovereignty," she said. The three institutions are, under the latest agreement with Greece, the IMF, the ECB, and the European Union.
"It’s a difficult path but one that has to be walked," Lagarde insisted.
