Greece expected to repay IMF loan instalment
Greece is expected to meet a deadline Thursday to repay a roughly 450-million-euro ($485-million) loan instalment to the International Monetary Fund – a debt Athens has insisted it will honor despite being severely cash-strapped.
The debt stems from Greece’s international bailout, under which the country was extended 240 billion euros in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the IMF to prevent bankruptcy.
Greece’s new left wing-led government has been locked in strained negotiations with creditors since winning January elections on pledges to abolish the deeply resented austerity measures on which the rescue was conditional. It hopes to persuade creditors to unlock the final 7.2 billion bailout installment.
Doubts about whether Athens could repay the loan had renewed fears the country might default and have to leave the eurozone.
[AP]
