by Magda Panoutsopoulou and Andrew Jay Rosenbaum
ATHENS
Greece on Friday paid out some €2.5 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund and treasury bill holders, as well as €348.5 million to the IMF.
But, in total, Greece must repay €15.5 billion euros in bonds and loans by August, the Greek Public Debt Management Agency said in a report to the country's parliament on 15 May 2014.
And, in the very near future, Greece must pay installments of €0.82 billion for April, €1.03 billion for May and €2.5 billion for June, the report said.
If these payments seem high, Greece has been asked to pay less than was originally demanded by its creditors, thanks to the concessions its government creditors already made to lower interest rates and extend the time over which debts must be repaid.
In 2011, Greece had to spend about 7.3 percent of its GDP in debt payments. That dropped to 4.2 percent last year, due to creditor concessions.
The government does have resources, though. The Greek state is owed €76 billion in unpaid taxes and social insurance contributions by individuals. The government can make efforts to collect at least a part of this unpaid tax.
At least, that is what Greece's European creditors maintain, and they are demanding fiscal reforms that would bring the money in, along with other economic reforms.
For now, Greece is dependent on emergency loans from the European Central Bank to keep the government and the country's banks afloat. If the bailout plan made with the European creditors can be implemented, Greece will receive €7.2 billion in aid which the country badly needs.
After meeting with political leaders from Germany, Greece and the Netherlands in Brussels on Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that an agreement on the bailout plan was possible.
Tsipras stated that “there was confirmation of the will of all sides to work so as to restore the financing ability of the Greek economy as soon as possible.”
The Greek Prime Minister will also meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday in Berlin to try to move the deal on the bailout plan forward.
